Team Savage: A Tale of Legends
by Prin Pardus
Summary: Sapphire wakes to find she's become a Pokemon, which her new friend Singe knows means trouble. Sapphire and Singe must scramble to get their bearings and create what every little Pokemon dreams of forming: a Legend team.
1. AN

**AN: *clears throat* **

**Welcome to the world of Pokemon! Here many amazing and fantastic adventures await you!**

**And so on and so forth. Welcome to my little story; some of you are probably fans of my Warriors fics. If so, cool! If not, welcome new audience! It's always great to meet new people on here. **

**Now, the reason I'm writing/posting this story is simple: it helps me unwind. Lord knows I need a break from the often-awful bits of Shattered and said Warriors universe. This story allows me to unwind, and so it will be a bit of a silly story. But, as a certain character of mine would say, that doesn't many it any less of a story! Sure, it's silly and light-hearted, but isn't that the point of Pokemon itself? That being said, this story will have light elements, and shades of parody, but there will be more serious things as well...just as in any good Mystery Dungeon game. Right?**

**Enough chat, though; if you're here, it isn't to read about my ramblings (although they happen often). I only have one more thing to say, and you can begin reading the story (if you wish to, that is).**

**I have a blog, in which I answer the questions posted in my reviews. Every time I post a chapter on any fic, I'll answer all questions from the previous chapter. Now, most of these updates will be for my Warriors fics, but if anyone reviews this story and has a question, I'll be glad to answer it on the blog! For a link, look in my profile and just copy-paste.**

**Now, enough chatter. It's time for you to enter the world of Pokemon! Enjoy your stay~!  
**


	2. Prologue: Bring Me To Life

**P **_**r o l o g u e**_

_She came around slowly, almost uncertainly. Something was wrong, she could feel it; the blackness was everywhere. She could see nothing; it was as if she was submerged in shadow._

_Dimly, she realized that her eyes were not open. However, she felt as if she had no strength, as if some force had sucked all of her power from her body. It took her a moment to realize this was wrong, this was not how she was supposed to feel. Something was strange, something was off._

_The shadows suddenly felt as if they were smothering her, and she struggled to take a deep breath of air, only to realize that she could not. The shadows of her mind were holding her down, pressing down on her with an incredible force. As she realized this, she was suddenly alive with fear, every part of her tingling. She began to struggle in her mind, to fight the darkness, as if she could claw through it. The shadows pressed back, but their grip seemed to have weakened as her will rose. She could almost – almost, not quite – feel her jaw clench stubbornly, and she fought back all the harder, raging against these strangers in her mind. They did not belong here; this was her place, not theirs._

Get out! _She screeched, and the shadows released their grip, vanished. Strength suddenly flowed into her limbs, and with a breath – a gasp, really – her eyes shot open._

The first thing she saw was the bright blue sky, dotted with the softest clouds she had ever seen. She frowned at them, as dim images of gray structures and gray skies flitted through her mind, but they vanished, as if swallowed up by lingering shadows.

She sat up slowly, and again her face creased in a frown. Something was not right, she could feel it. She stumbled slightly as she stood, but found that she almost immediately regained her balance, as if there was something else helping. She was suddenly aware of a strange weight, and as her hand reached back to her rear end, she felt something new. A…tail?

Her eyes widened in surprise, as other differences became evident. Her tail felt strange to the touch, scaly, and when she wiggled her fingers, she found that one was missing. Fear made her new scales prickle, and seeing the glint of clear water, she hurried towards it. Her once smooth, long-legged gait had turned into an awkward waddle, and when she peered into the water, she saw why. The ghost of the body she had owned before still haunted this new one, and as she stared into the water, she saw both of them; the blue-eyed, brown-haired, slim, human girl that she had once been, superimposed upon this short, stocky body, with its blue scales and gleaming red eyes. Her jaw, once so petite, had lengthened substantially, jutting out stubbornly, as teeth that had once been tiny curled over her lips in almost a grin. The corner of her mouth curled up, as if amused; that, at least, she had in common with her old body. A yellow v-shape splashed her chest, and she turned to see red spike-fins dotting her back.

_A Totodile, _she thought, and it was as if bringing the name of what she now was banished her past body from her mind, for when she peered into the water again, all she saw blinking at her was a Totodile; nothing more, nothing less.

_This isn't who I was! _She thought, struggling to hold onto her identity. _I was something else once…a human! Now I'm this thing…a Totodile. But how? Why?_

"Yo!"a voice squeaked at her from behind, making her turn. She blinked into bright green eyes set into an orange face.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Do I look okay?" she snarled, surprised by the venom in her voice; it had come so easily. Was she normally like this?

He blinked at her, and swallowed nervously. "You seem like a normal Totodile to me," he said uncertainly. "I mean, I saw you lying there by the lake, so I came down to help…but you got up and you look okay, so...?"

"Well, I'm not okay," she said, before taking a deep breath. _Don't be ill-tempered, _she scolded herself. _You're in a strange place, turned from a human to a Totodile somehow. Now is not the time to be running around making enemies. If what he said is true and he came to help, he can't be the bad sort, and that sort of stupid, gallant behavior is easy to manipulate. He could be a reasonable ally; Charmanders are strong._

That's what he was, a Charmander; the name popped into her head easily, as if she had known it for a long time. _Did I interact with Pokémon as a human?_ She wondered, but pushed the thought aside. Her stomach was growling in a way that she was certain was more fiercely than a human's stomach, and she was weary. She needed somewhere to rest.

"Is there anything I can do for you?" the Charmander asked. "I'm Singe, by the way. And you are…?"

"I don't know," she said tiredly. Weighing her options, she plunged forward. "I don't think I'm a Pokémon," she said quickly. "This sounds insane, I know it does…but I think I was actually once a human."

Singe didn't run away or scream like she had expected. Rather, he seemed to take it in stride. If anything, it seemed to excite him. "Really?" he breathed. "A human? Are you sure?"

"Either that, or I'm insane," she remarked, although she wasn't so sure it wasn't a possibility.

"I'm pretty sure you're not insane," he said, and she was surprised that he sounded earnest. "This has happened before, you know."

Her eyes glinted, and she leaned forward, grabbing him by the shoulders with her sharp-clawed hands. "Really? How?" she demanded.

Singe looked frightened, and she released him, surprised by the ferocity that had gripped her. Was it the Pokémon instinct in her? Or had she been savage, even as a human?

"It's happened twice before, that I know," Singe continued, still looking a bit nervous. "There was a pair of Pokémon that stopped the comet that was going to destroy the world, and another pair that helped return Dialga to his normal state; their species were lost to history, but we still know of their exploits. The first Transformed met a normal Pokémon and they created a rescue team together, then saved the world. The second Transformed created an exploration team with a normal Pokémon…." His eyes gleamed. "You and I should make a legend team!"

She was too tired to even wonder at what he meant. "I just need a place to rest," she said with a yawn. "All this saving-the-world crap can wait, I don't have time to mess with it. If I'm a Pokémon, that's all well and good, I don't care. Whoever turned me into one had better look out, because I'm going to hunt them down and take back what they stole from me. Maybe I'll be a human again, maybe I won't, but no one takes anything from me!" She realized she had bared her fangs in a snarl.

Singe cocked his head to one side. "What did they steal?"

"My memories," she answered. "Everything. A moment ago, I thought I knew how I looked as a human…but now I'm not so sure. I can't even remember my name."

"How about Sapphire?" he suggested. When she looked at him quizzically, he blushed. "Because, um, your scales are so pretty," he mumbled, and she could have sworn he blushed. "Like the, um, gem."

"Sapphire," she repeated, tasting the name. There was a certain power to it, like the power of her new body, and she found that she liked it. "Sapphire," she said again, and smiled at Singe, aware that smiling meant she was showing off her large teeth, probably capable of ripping the small Charmander in half with a single bite. Singe didn't seem to get the message, for he simply smiled at her, goodwill lighting up his humble face.

"If you're tired, I think I know a place where you can go," he said. "Team Blitz had a team base near Dewdum, but they moved on to a bigger one and it kind of fell into disrepair. You can live there for the meantime, until we decide what to do about you." He said 'we' so confidentially, as if Sapphire had already agreed to joining a 'team', whatever that meant. She decided not to correct him; the thought of a place to sleep was incredibly tempting.

"Let's see it," she commanded. With a grin, Singe dashed away, faster than Sapphire would have thought possible. She followed him as quickly as she could, finding a sort of waddling-running rhythm. She wasn't incredibly fast, but she wasn't truly slow, either.

He led her from the lake into warn paths through the forest. She was suddenly aware that they had been on a high slope, as a tiny town unfolded before them, tucked securely into a little valley. Small houses dotted wide streets, and her eyes widened as she saw the roofs sparkle.

"How…?" she asked Singe. His grin grew wider.

"A long time ago, it was cooler here, and the dew that gathered on the roofs used to last all day," he explained, his voice having the tone of repeating something often quoted. "However, after the comet, the weather changed, and it grew hotter here. Dewdum was named for its dewy roofs, and we couldn't let them go; so, in the mornings, Ice Pokémon to freeze the dew. It melts throughout the day, and by dusk it's gone. A Glaceon does it now; pretty, huh?"

She nodded, almost transfixed by the frozen dew, before the sound of a twig snapping alerted her to Singe moving on. She began following him again, down a less worn path, which ended at a small pool in a clearing. In the pool was a large rock, and upon this rock, a hut had been built. It was shabby, nothing spectacular even in its prime. Now, the windows were broken, the paint peeling, the roof sagging.

"It isn't much," Singe said quickly, seeing the disdainful curl of her lip, "but it will do for now, right?"

Sapphire was about to object to living in this _shack, _but another wave of weariness stopped her. Singe was right, it would do for now. She could check out real estate later.

"There's a bridge you can—" Singe started to say, stopping as Sapphire sprang into the pool. Swimming came easily to her, as she had expected it would; the water slide smoothly over her scales, and her large nostrils could peek over the edge of the water without exposing the rest of her body. She swam a few laps around the pool; her tail, while useless on land, was powerful here. Using it, she propelled herself into the rock, digging her claws in as she pulled herself up. She panted for a moment, before waddling into the house, pushing the door open – it was almost hanging off of its hinges. Light streamed in from the broken windows, showing dusty wooden floors. There was a cushion on the far wall that she guessed was supposed to be for sleeping. The thought of lying on it filled her with disgust, but she had no choice. She practically fell on top of it, and her eyes were closed in an instant, even as dust filled her nose. Within mere moments, exhaustion had swept her away.

**AN: So, this is sort of a game I used to play on Red Rescue Team, starring Sapphire and Singe. RR was SO much better with the new ones. On the old ones, your partner used to give you choices (the results were still the same, but w'ever, you could see your partners reactions and such, at least) and you could actually interact with him/her. Plus, it seemed like they really cared about you enough to come with you when Alakazam and his groupies are after you; in Time, your partner is so whiny and he/she is only with you because stupid Dusky grabbed you like rapists. D:**

**Anyway, this is obviously far FAR into the future, compared to RR, BR, EoT, and EoD. We'll do some more world-building next chappy. :3**


	3. Chapter 1: Crazy

**C **_**h a p t e r **_**1**

She let out a soft sigh, feeling the soft pillow against her face. It smelled a little strange, without the flowery scent of home.

_Am I camping? _She wondered dreamily, before reaching up to tuck one arm under the pillow, propping it against her face. Instead of soft pillow, her hand only managed to brush her jaw, as if she had misjudged the distance…or her arms were simply too short.

Like cold water, the realization swept over her, and her eyes snapped open. For a moment, she didn't recognize the peeled paint and drooping ceiling. The sound of water lapping against a hard surface reminded her of the little hut, and she sat up, blinking slowly. It had only been a dream, she had thought…but if it was, how had she gotten here?

Without realizing it, she rose from the cushion and bolted out of the hut, practically throwing herself into the water. Yes, there was those blue scales, the hard jaw, the ambitious ruby eyes, the slight curl of a smile. She staggered backwards with shock; it was true, she was a Pokémon. It hadn't simply been a dream like she had hoped.

So what, then? What did she do now? She wanted to go and punch in the face of whoever had done this to her and stolen her memories, but she didn't even know where to begin.

Perhaps the truth laid with Singe, and these 'legend' teams. Maybe this saving the world stuff wasn't crap after all; maybe if she did that, she would get her memories back. It was possible, she supposed.

A cheery "Hey!" made her turn, and she blinked at Singe, who was sitting on a stone near the pond.

"Good morning!" he chirped. "Sleep well? Remember anything?"

"Kind of, and no," she replied, jumping into the water. This time, she spared no time for playing around in the water, climbing right out to stand beside the Charmander instead. "Now, you mentioned teams yesterday…?"

Singe nodded quickly. "It's kind of long if you want the whole story, though." Sapphire tapped her foot impatiently, and Singe began speaking, or rather reciting.

"A long time ago, a human was turned into a Pokémon, like you. This Pokémon had to help save the world from a terrible comet that was going to crash into the earth. It should have been a simple matter to get the Legendarys' help and destroy the comet, but none of them would cooperate. Many of them even stood in this Pokémon's way! The same thing happened with the second human-turned-Pokémon – they're called the Transformed. The Legendary have always been quarreling with each other, and these fights often cause major trouble for us normal Pokémon. They also seem to put themselves first, instead of other Pokémon. However, not all of the Legendary are this way. A few wanted to help the normal Pokémon too. They managed to convince the other Legendary that there should be a sort of 'union' between normal Pokémon and the Legendary. To help this, the legend teams were created. Each Legendary has a certain legend team assigned to it; these teams meet with the Legendary at least once a year, to make sure everything is fine and to work out any problems that anyone might have. Every year, after meeting with their Legendary, the teams meet to discuss the Legendarys' problems with each other, and to propose peaceful solutions. It's a very important job. All of the legend teams are full right now, but there are rumors…." Singe's eyes sparkled. "There's rumors that a Legendary that has not been seen for many years might be waking up. Sapphire, I think you're becoming a human might have something to do with that! You must have been sent here to be part of the team for the new Legendary!"

Sapphire blinked slowly. "These legend teams have a lot of power?" she asked carefully. Singe nodded quickly.

"Every member of a legend team is regarded highly, and they have a lot of sway with decisions and the like," he answered. "Plus, they always get the best missions!"

"Missions?" Sapphire echoed. "What kind of missions?"

"Again, kind of a long story," Singe laughed. "To keep it short, there are these things called mystery dungeons. They're in special spots and are hard to find. Inside the dungeon, it's…well, it's like magic. There's a different layout each time you enter, different items, different feral Pokémon to face….Getting through dungeons is hard, and getting through the nearest dungeon is a sort of rite-of-passage for many Pokémon, a way to prove their worth. Not all of them make it, and they get stuck or beaten up with no way to get out. They send out a distress call, which the teams answer. The teams go into the dungeons and save the Pokémon, you see? Sometimes we go to fetch items and stuff, too, or get a certain Pokémon to a meeting place with another."

Sapphire's lip curled. "Sounds like grunt work to me."

"Well, like I said, the higher you are, the better the missions…and the rewards," Singe said almost slyly, smiling as Sapphire's eyes glinted with the promise of treasure.

"So, let's make a team!" Sapphire declared. "And then we can go look for this Legendary."

Singe giggled. "It isn't that easy," he explained. "If we made a team now, we'd only be a rescue team; we aren't legend material yet."

"Yet?"

"Every time a new Legendary is discovered or awakened, a call goes out to all teams in the area. They have to prove their worth as a team to earn their position as that Legendary's team, you see? But to even qualify for the test and become a legend team, you have to have a certain number of points. You can get points from doing missions and stuff like that."

Sapphire's head was swimming; it was too much information for her to handle. "So, spell it out for me," she said slowly. "How do we become this legend thing?"

"We train hard and do as many missions as we can before the teams are called together to compete for the honor of becoming a legend team," Singe said, "and then we complete some sort of test, and if we're the best, we get to become the legend team. Then, we go and find the Legendary before it wakes up, and before anyone else tries to get there first."

"Other Pokémon might try to get there first?"

He nodded. "Bad Pokémon sometimes try to hurt Legendary, or take advantage of them while they're asleep or weak. That can cause a lot of trouble when the Legendary regains its full power, or when another gets wind of them. Still, they're very powerful, and having one at your mercy could let you do some very bad things." He shuddered, but Sapphire's mind was working quickly. Wouldn't it be easier to just side-step the whole legend team thing, and go straight for the Legendary? Still, the idea seemed to frighten Singe; she wouldn't suggest it just yet.

"So, let's make a team!" she said quickly. "This shouldn't be hard, right? We'll just train until the competition thing, and then we'll be the new Legendary's team!"

Singe's eyes glowed. "You really want to?"

Sapphire nodded, and Singe did a little dance of joy, leaving Sapphire feeling faintly embarrassed for him. "Great! C'mon, we need to go to Dewdum. We have to register as a team and everything, it'll be really quick, no worries. I can even show you around town!" His green eyes were glowing with excitement, and Sapphire couldn't help but smile.

"Let's go."

. . .

The sight of the glittering village was even more breath-taking in the morning sunlight. Sapphire could see a white-blue shape darting around the roofs.

"Who's that?" she asked.

"Glaceon," Singe answered. "She's been freezing the dew for us; when she eventually passes away, some other ice Pokémon will do it. Now, come on, let's not waste any time!" Singe dashed down the steep slope. Not wanting to be left behind, Sapphire broke into an awkward run. All too late, she realized her short legs weren't built for running down any hills; her gait turned into an awkward hopping, just trying to stay on her feet. Unfortunately, there was dew on the grass as well as the houses in the village; the grass was slick underfoot. With a gasp, she lost her balance, and her run down the slope turned into a tumble.

Not even trying to regain her footing, she simply curled up into a ball, protecting her face. If she had been a human, she would have broken a few bones, but her new body was stocky and sturdy, with hard scales that protected her from most of the damage. However, resting against the rock that had broken her fall, she uncurled and let out a groan, feeling battered and bruised. Rubbing her head ruefully, she let out a sigh.

An amused chuckle caused her to turn, and then blushed at the Umbreon watching her, a smile curling at the corners of his mouth. Sapphire quickly sprang to her feet. The Umbreon glanced her over, and let out another chuckle.

"Not hurt, are you?" he asked. His voice was silvery, smooth, warm to her ears – did she have ears? The thought distracted her, and she glanced away from him.

"Fine," she growled, assuming her gruff tone once more. "Who're you?" She didn't dare meet his amber eyes, afraid that the blush would return.

"Lune," he said, with a flick of one jet-black ear. "And you?"

"S-Sapphire," she stammered, glancing towards his face and feeling her own heat once more.

"Hey, Lune," she heard Singe say. His usually cheerful voice had a slight growl to it, and she glanced at him, surprised by the hardness in his green eyes. He turned towards her. "Sapphire, are you alright?"

She brushed his concern away, irritated. "Fine."

Lune's ear twitched again, and he ignored Singe, giving Sapphire a smile instead. "I must be on my way," he said warmly, "but if I was you, I would visit Magnus. He has some information you might find valuable."

Sapphire smiled back, and with a little bow – it would have seemed awkward on any other four-legged Pokémon, but it seemed to fit him – he padded away, heading into the forest.

"Stay away from him," Singe said immediately, as soon as Lune was out of earshot. "He's trouble, him and his friends."

Sapphire's eyes narrowed. "Friends?"

He nodded. "Luminita the Luxio, and Luster the Meowth."

Sapphire smirked. "Their names all begin with the same sound. How adorable."

Singe frowned at her. "It's not funny, they're not a joke. They're a very powerful team, and we'll be competing against them if we want to become a legend team ourselves."

"How many Pokémon can be on a team?" Sapphire asked. If Lune was strong and as charismatic as he seemed, he would have plenty of power; his team would clearly trump anything Singe could ever hope to create.

"Thinking about joining them?" Singe asked, and hurt flashed in his eyes. "Going to desert me already?"

"No," Sapphire said quickly, not wanting to make him angry. "I was just wondering. We'll need lots of members on our team, right?"

Singe blinked at her for a moment, but he seemed placated, for now at least. "Teams can hold as many Pokémon as they want," he said finally, "but getting them to join you isn't easy. And only three can go on a mission together at one time, I think. Technically four, but you can't get anyone new that way."

"How do we recruit new members?" Sapphire asked keenly.

"Well, sometimes new members join the team as a reward for the mission," Singe said slowly. "Or sometimes when you fight a feral Pokémon in the dungeons, they'll see the light and decide to be on your team."

Sapphire smirked. "We'll get every Pokémon we face to join us, with our power," she purred. Singe rolled his eyes at her.

"Don't get too cocky," he said, but he was smiling. "I mean, a lot of wild Pokémon can be really, really strong. We could face some real toughies out there…which is why every group needs items!" He pointed forward, and Sapphire blinked as she realized they had entered the town without realizing it. Looking over her shoulder, she saw a line of houses leading back towards the grassy slope from whence they came.

A large building rose before them, colored in horribly clashing pink and blue. It had an almost messy appearance, as if the creator had simply slapped the wood and metal wherever they'd wanted it, without really caring about the end result. Sapphire could have sworn it was leaning at least a foot to the right, although Singe seemed not to notice. He strode forward, and she quickly followed. She could see shelves stretching all the way around the open room, filled with colorful items; berries, orbs, shiny discs, and anything else she could have possibly imagined. She gazed upon the items with wonder, her tiny claws itching to snap up every one.

"What's this?" she asked.

"This is our shop, where we get our items," Singe started to explain, but was interrupted by a loud siren. Sapphire clapped her hands over her ears (or ear holes, whatever they were) grinding her teeth together from the pain of the blaring noise. Red and blue lights flashed from the back of the store, as the store-owner entered the room from another room farther back.

"CUSTOMER," the shop owner beeped, coming forward, the siren halting as he did so. His voice was loud and robotic sounding; there was something about it that made Sapphire's skin crawl.

As the shop owner neared, her eyes widened as she realized it was nothing other than a Porygon-Z.

"ANALYZING CUSTOMER," the creature beeped, and it began to make a strange whirring sound, like that of a fan. Sapphire glanced at Singe anxiously, but he just shot her a quick smile.

"ANALYSIS COMPLETED. CUSTOMER IS…SINGE!" It gave a very shrill beeping noise. "SINGE! MOST VALUED OF ALL MY VALUED CUSTOMERS! I VALUE YOU THE MOST!"

"I know, Zee," Singe said. "Everyone's your most valued customer."

"NO, SINGE, YOU ARE MY FAVORITE. ALLOW ME TO SHOW YOU." He made the beeping noise again, and floated towards the back, picking up a shiny disc and bringing it forward. "SINGE, I WILL GIVE YOU MY VERY SPECIAL OFFER. THIS AMAZING—" He broke off, and made the whirring sound again, as if analyzing the disk. "THIS AMAZING FLAMETHROWER CAN BE YOURS…FOR ONLY 10,000 COINS!"

Singe stared at him. "10,000 coins? Are you insane?"He asked. "Er, never mind, you are." He let out a laugh, giving Sapphire a grin, but she simply stared at him in confusion.

"Zee here was created by the Kecleon brothers," he whispered to her. "They both knew they'd never mate and have kids, but they wanted their store to survive. So, hundreds of years ago, they created Zee to do the job. But he's getting old now, and…well, let's just say not all the gears are turning, if you know what I mean." He winked at her.

"Zee, I just need some basic supplies," Singe said. "Nothing too complex, certainly not a TM."

"I WILL GIVE THIS FINE TM TO YOU, SINGE, BECAUSE YOU ARE MY MOST VALUABLE CUSTOMER," Zee beeped. "FOR A SHOW OF GOODWILL, YOU CAN HAVE IT FOR…10,000 COINS!"

Singe sighed quietly. "Zee. I don't need it."

Zee began glowing, almost sparkling; Sapphire had to look away or be blinded. "SINGE. YOU ARE MY MOST VALUED CUSTOMER. I WILL GIVE YOU THIS TM FOR ONLY…9,000 COINS. DO WE HAVE A FAIR TRADE?"

Singe blinked at him. "Zee, please—" He stopped speaking as Zee began to glow brighter, obviously very distressed.

"SINGE, I MUST SELL THIS TM," he said. "MY DIRECTIVE IS TO SELL THE WARES OF THE KECLEON BROTHERS. THIS TM MUST BE SOLD. YOU ARE MY CUSTOMER. YOU WILL BUY IT!" His last words were even louder, if that was possible, and Sapphire winced. Things were going to get very ugly very quickly, if Zee's heightening distress continued.

"Singe, maybe we should—" she stared to say, but Singe waved her worries away with one hand.

"I've got this, okay? Just trust me," he whispered to her. "Now listen here, Zee, I'll be glad to buy your wares. But I can't buy the TM, okay? I don't have that much money."

"THE TM MUST BE SOLD. YOU WILL BUY IT!" Zee shrieked, and his limbs began to glow with a frightening aura. Sapphire had had just about enough of this nonsense; she could feel her Totodile blood beginning to boil.

"Just sell us what Singe asks for!" she snarled at him. "We aren't going to buy your stupid TM, okay? Just give us some berries, or whatever Singe needs!"

Zee turned his sights onto her, and for a moment Sapphire was afraid. The high-pitched sound from before had started again. "SINGE WILL NOT BUY MY WARES?" Zee demanded angrily. "SINGE IS NOT A CUSTOMER! SINGE IS NO LONGER ALLOWED IN MY SHOP!" The siren from before began to wail, coming from Zee's body, as he flashed bright blue and red lights at them. Sapphire staggered back, blinded, clutching her head in pain. There was the sound of wood hitting wood, and the siren suddenly stopped. Sapphire opened her eyes to find that the deranged Pokémon had closed his shop, using two shutters to block the room from view.

She turned to Singe. "Are you insane? Why on earth is _that _Pokémon handling the trade here!"

Singe looked at her sheepishly. "He's been around before most of us were even born," he said. "Zee's always ran the place. He has good days and bad days. When the Magnemite come through, they usually have some spare parts and stuff for Zee…but they haven't been around lately. Things have been kinda crazy."

Sapphire blinked at him questioningly. "Crazy?"

Singe nodded. "Lately, the earth has been a little out of whack…there have been more natural disasters and stuff. The mystery dungeons are behaving strangely; some are appearing and disappearing without warning. A lot of missions have Pokémon that tried going through a mystery dungeon to prove themselves, but the dungeon teleported away to another location! This sort of stuff only happens when the Legendary are troubled, which generally means that either a new Legendary is coming, or the old ones are making troubles. None of the legend teams report any conflicts between the Legendary, for the moment, so everyone's thinking that it means a new Legendary is arriving. But only the higher-ups in charge of everything know for sure."

"And now I'm here…so that's almost definitely it, right?" Sapphire realized. "Interesting…." She frowned. "What are we going to do about items now, though? Zee said we're not allowed into his shop anymore."

Singe laughed quietly. "I wouldn't worry about that, Sapphire. I've got a few things tucked away…and besides, Zee reboots every night. He won't remember kicking me out; I'll be his most valued customer again. See, everyone's his most valued customer…because he can't remember any of them!" Singe laughed, and it seemed almost as if he had been lit from the inside; his orange skin seemed to glow as he headed down the street. Sapphire gave another glance towards the closed store – she could swear she heard a low whirring – before following Singe.

It was going to be a long day.


	4. Chapter 2: Mad World

**AN: Lawl, you can call Sapphire Sapphy. Just don't let her hear you. ;)**

**C **_**h a p t e r**_** 2**

Singe trotted through the small town quickly, much more nimble on his feet than clumsy Sapphire, with her waddle. Not only that, but once she fell it was hard to get up; several times she stumbled and had to roll to gain the momentum to get back up. It was both irritating and embarrassing, and she did not care for it.

"Where are we going?" she complained. Singe grinned at her.

"It has to be a surprise!" he chirped. "Everything in Dewdum is a surprise."

"Not the kind I like," she grumbled under her breath, but he didn't seem to hear.

Another bright building rose before them; it appeared to be split in half. One half was colored bright blue, with an odd spring-shaped object at the very top; the building was covered in shiny gems that glinted like the dew on the roofs. The other half was a deep blue, with splashes of yellow. A thin black line had been painted between the two halves of the building. Sapphire glanced at Singe, wondering about the odd paint job.

These shops both had the same open front as Zee's; one appeared to be empty, the other was full of small open treasure chests that came in an array of bright colors.

"Libby," Singe called cheerily. "You here?"

A Glameow appeared, stalking forward from a room in the back; her pelt gleamed, almost seeming to shimmer as she padded forward. She let out a quiet purr, seeing Singe.

"Have any goodies for me, darling?" she asked silkily, pronouncing 'darling' as 'daaahling', which irritated Sapphire to no end. "Anything shiny?"Her claws glinted and she watched Singe with a hungry expression in her greedy eyes.

"No, not today," Singe said. "I came to withdraw some of my items, actually."

Libby's eyes flashed. "You're taking something out?" she demanded with a hiss. Singe was unperturbed; he gave her a little nod.

"I need about…one hundred coins, I think, and a few Oran berries too," he said. "Sapphire and I are making a legend team!" He puffed out his chest with pride. Libby's eyes narrowed as she stared at Sapphire; Sapphire let out a warning growl, and the small feline looked away.

"I don't know if I can give you the items," Libby meowed. "It's in the contract, I'm afraid. In exchange for having a safe place to store your items and gold, you can't take them out. Ever."

Singe looked confused. "Contract? I never signed a contract, Libby."

Libby's eyes widened in mock-horror. "You didn't sign the contract? Well, then it seems your items and gold has been stored illegally! How sad. I guess they fall into my position now."

Singe frowned at her. "Come on, Libby, that's not fair.

"Trouble, Libby?" A smooth voice washed over Sapphire's ear-holes, and she turned to the other shop; a Lucario was standing there, leaning on the front of the shop, watching them with glimmering ruby eyes.

"Luke," Singe said with a smile. "How are you?"

"Fine, but I sense you're distressed," Luke drawled. "Libby, are you up to your tricks again? We talked about this."

Libby glanced at him quickly, her claws kneading the ground. "I'm not doing anything," she said sullenly.

Luke turned to Singe. "The contract thing?" he asked, and Singe nodded. "Libby," Luke said, a warning tone in his voice. Sulkily, the Glameow shot Singe a venomous glance, before padding back into the back room of the shop. She reemerged with a bag of coins clasped in her jaws, which she tossed to them – Sapphire's eyes glinted at the gentle clink of coin on coin – followed by another small bag. Singe handled the second bag gently, handing the first to Sapphire; she blinked at him in surprise, being trusted with the money, but he only gave her a smile.

"Libby keeps our stuff for us," he explained, "she stocks all of the items for the legend teams. She's got this like, machine thing that converts the items into energy, which are stored away for each team or Pokémon. I've been storing little items and stuff that I've found in here for years, hoping that someday I'd be able to use it all for a legend team of my own." His eyes gleamed brightly. "I can't believe it's finally happening!"

"I don't believe we've met your friend here," the older Lucario said, watching Sapphire cautiously. "I can feel her aura and its…very strange. I've only encountered this particular kind around human settlements…." His eyes narrowed suspiciously.

Singe glanced at Libby quickly; her eyes gleamed with the prospect of juicy gossip. "Sapphire used to be a human," Singe confided; Luke's ears pricked with surprise, while Libby let out a quiet hiss.

"A human?" Luke echoed, a troubled look flitting over his face. "This is…not good. The rumors are true, it seems, about strange things happening in the world….This is very troubling indeed."

"I can't wait to tell everyone!" Libby purred, and before they could react, the little Glameow leaped onto the counter, and into the street, dashing down the road. Luke sighed, shaking his head.

"What will the town say?" Sapphire asked nervously. "Will they do anything to me?"

Singe blinked in surprise. "Of course not, Sapphire! You're safe here. Both times that humans have come in the forms of Pokémon, very dangerous things have been happening in the world. You're here because you need to be; everyone knows that. No one will hurt you. I promise." His geeky face was oddly solemn as he looked at her, and she found herself believing him.

"Thanks," she said quietly, and Singe looked away from her quickly, his face heating up.

"Anyway," Luke continued, giving Singe an amused glance, "as you know, I'm Luke. I'm here if you find any chests." He jerked his paw towards the many opened treasure chests behind him. "I have power over aura; I can see and manipulate it. Most inanimate objects don't have aura, but these chests are different. I can manipulate the aura and cause them to open…for a price." He winked. "They're full of good prizes, and you can't really sell them – no one buys them for a good price, you never know what's inside – so you might as well let me open them for you."

"Where do they come from?" Sapphire asked with a frown. Singe gave a little shrug.

"A lot of items occur naturally in dungeons…berries and seeds, for example," he explained. "But some things show up completely without warning or explanation, like TMs and orbs. No one knows where they come from, just that they do. Treasure chests are like that."

"And they contain…?"

Luke grinned at her. "Bring me one and you'll find out," he winked. "Now, didn't you say you were signing up to be a legend team? Better hurry, or they'll close for the day and you'll have to wait until tomorrow."

Singe's eyes glowed. "that's right, I forgot. Bye, Luke, and thanks!"

As they walked away from the shop, Sapphire gave him a glance. "Any other weirdoes we need to go visit before we can make this team thing?"

"They aren't weirdoes," Singe said, giving her a frown. "They're just Pokémon, like everyone else. Except you, I mean." He laughed quietly. "And there are a few more I'd like you to meet before we go and sign up. They're important to legend teams, all of them. And we'll need their help if we want to really become legend teams, and get ourselves assigned to a real Legendary. You need to remember that, Sapphire." His green eyes glinted, and Sapphire looked away.

"Right," she said. "Sorry. It's just been rough, getting used to…all this." She wiggled her tail. Singe gave her a gentle smile.

"Don't worry," he said, and took her hand in his, looking as if he was about to say something extremely poignant and meaningful and cliché. She quickly pulled her hand away. Hurt flashed over his face, but he didn't say anything. His gait increased slightly.

Yet another strangely-colored building came into view, a soft pink with a splash of cream in the center. Sapphire groaned inwardly, wondering what horrors this building held.

To her surprise, a Pokémon was already standing in the shop front without having to be called. But this Pokémon wasn't one that she recognized; its name didn't pop into her head immediately like with the others. In fact, she had absolutely no idea what sort of Pokémon this creature was.

Like the shop, it was pink and cream. Its body appeared to be mostly cream, with the pink acting as a sort of tuxedo. The top half of its face was pink, but the lower half and the tips of its curling ears were cream. It had bright, gleaming blue eyes and a gentle smile on its gentle face. She could see a fluffy white tail peeking behind it; the Pokémon reminded her of a humanoid Buneary.

"How are you, Singe?" the strange Pokémon chirped. Her voice was gentle, almost shy, and sounded almost as if she was singing the words. Sapphire blinked at her strange, lilting accent. Where was this Pokémon from?

"Miss Liss!" Singe said with a grin; his cheeks seemed to heat up as he looked at her, and smoke curled from one nostril.

_He's crushing on her, _Sapphire thought gleefully. _But, how it would stink to have smoke coming out of your nose…imagine having a dream about her and catching your house on fire!_

She smiled slightly at the thought, but the natural curl of her jaw prevented Singe from noticing.

"Sapphire, this is Miss Lily Liss," Singe said, his eyes glowing as he looked at her. "Do you know what she is?"

Sapphire frowned; she didn't like admitting she didn't know things in front of Singe; her only bonus in this world was that she knew the other Pokémon, but she didn't have a clue as to what "Miss Lily Liss" was. "No," she said grudgingly.

"I'm a Tabunne," she said pleasantly. "I hail from a faraway land. I came to this land as a visitor, but I must say I'm very taken with it!" She blushed prettily. "This is a very cute little town, very welcoming. I'm thinking of settling here permanently…in the meantime, I can take care of any eggs you might have on hand."

Sapphire's eyes gleamed; finally something she knew about. "Pokémon lay eggs, right?" she asked, glancing at Singe. "Trainers carry the eggs around with them until they hatch. Why do we need her?"

"Being a legend team is dangerous, Sapphire, it's not all fun and games. We can't carry big, clumsy eggs around with us. So Miss Liss takes care of them for us. We get eggs as rewards from missions, or sometimes we can find them in dungeons, abandoned by feral Pokémon."

_Feral Pokémon? _Sapphire wondered. She'd heard the term earlier, and it confused her; was there a difference between some Pokémon and the ones that lived in the villages?

She didn't have time to ask, however, for Singe snapped his fingers.

"Sorry Miss Liss, but we've got to rush. We're going to make a legend team together," he said eagerly. "I'm sure we'll bring back a bunch of eggs for you to take care of!"

Miss Liss's blue eyes glinted. "I would love that, Singe. You can never take care of too many eggs." She smiled at him warmly, and waved goodbye as Singe led them away.

"Well," Sapphire said tiredly, "there's another shop, right?"

Singe nodded. "Our last one, as a legend team anyway. There are a lot of other shops with food and stuff that we can visit, but you can actually get all the food you need from dungeons, if you play your cards right."

Sapphire's short legs were beginning to complain from the walking, but she didn't' voice her discomfort; she didn't want Singe thinking that she was weak, or he might reconsider their alliance, and where would she be then? These legend teams sounded like they were where the power was, and she needed power to get a handle on this crazy world.

Yet another building came into view, tucked between two nondescript little buildings. In fact, the shop itself was pretty plain, except for the slow hum of energy Sapphire could feel emitting from it.

_Aura? _She wondered. _Or something else?_

_Welcome to my shop, _a slow, deep voice whispered. Sapphire blinked, turning to Singe, but he stared at her curiously.

"What is it?" he asked, then blinked again, turning towards the shop with a smile. "Good morning, Magnus," he said.

_Who is this? _The deep voice asked, and Sapphire's eyes widened as she realized she wasn't hearing the sound with her ears. This Pokémon was speaking through her _mind._

"Get out!" she snarled, clapping her hands over her ears as if it might block the voice. "Get out of my head!"

_Do not be alarmed, _the voice said. _I have no intent of harming you._

Sapphire's ruby eyes narrowed. "Get out," she hissed. "My mind is all I've got going for me right now."

She could feel his curiosity, but he didn't say anything else; the slight hum of energy she'd been feeling withdrew slightly.

"Magnus communicates telepathically. It's how he talks," Singe said. "There's nothing wrong with it."

"He was inside my mind, Singe! I didn't ask to have strangers rooting through my brain!"

Singe frowned at her. "He wasn't 'rooting around your brain', he was just talking. I mean, he _could _root around inside, but its common courtesy not to."

She stared at him in disbelief. Was he really that stupid?

"If she doesn't want me speaking to her that way, then I won't, Singe. Speaking aloud is a little more taxing, but it is not a difficult matter." The voice, slightly softer than the mental one, came from the shop. A Pokémon floated forward, and Sapphire blinked as she recognized him as an Alakazam, one of the strongest Psychic Pokémon.

_No way he's allowed in my head, _she thought fiercely.

"So, Singe,you are going to become a legend team?"

Sapphire's eyes narrowed, and she glanced at Singe; how would he feel about the Alakazam rooting around in _his _brain?

Magnus's eyes glanced towards her, as if he knew what she was thinking. "Tongues wag in our little town," he said softly. "Gossip is in high demand here…which is how I know you are actually a human, not by digging through your mind."He clasped his hands together thoughtfully, fingertips touching as he watched her. "How interesting."

Sapphire's scales crawled; Magnus was definitely giving her the creeps. "Alright, Singe, what does he do?"she asked, eager to leave the Psychic Pokémon.

"Magnus here can do something called Linking," Singe explained. "Pokémon know a whole bunch of moves, and depending on how smart you are, you can remember a lot of them. In mystery dungeons, you have to act quickly, and always be on alert. Sometimes there isn't enough time to perform two moves when you need them. So Magnus here Links them; when you use one, the other automatically follows."

Sapphire blinked. "This is going to be some jacked-up brain stuff, isn't it?" she asked glumly. Singe nodded.

"Magnus can actually, uh, 'rewire' your brain so the two moves happen together without any effort," he said. "It's pretty cool, really, but kind of expensive."

"Does it hurt?" Sapphire asked cautiously; she didn't like the idea of Magnus rewiring her anything, but at the same time it sounded useful.

Singe looked sheepish. "Um, yeah, actually. It hurts a lot. Especially when you use the moves too much and the Link is broken because your brain kind of reboots itself after a while…if you use a move too much, you exhaust your body, and your brain will eventually catch on and break the Link. Very painful, or so I'm told…ha, ha," he gave a weak little laugh, seeing Sapphire's dangerous expression.

"This sounds like the absolutely worst idea ever," she snapped. "Honestly, who pays for this?"

"You would be surprised, Sapphire," Magnus said. "Many Pokémon are willing to take pain for power; often it is the only way you will ever become strong, you understand?"

"Can we just sign up already?" Sapphire asked, tired of the shop-madness.

"Well, there were a few more things I just thought of that I wanted to see…." Singe trailed off, seeing Sapphire's exposed teeth as she growled at him. "But we can always see them later," he said quickly, giving Magnus a wave and trotting away. Sapphire followed, with a glance over her shoulder at the floating Alakazam; his eyes were closed, but she had the feeling that he was still somehow watching her.

_Creeper, _ she thought, hoping he could hear her.

They were almost to the sign-up post, when she realized that neither Singe nor herself had ever told Magnus her name.

**AN: A few Gen5 Pokémon will appear in here, but not very many. I really have no idea whether Tabunne is the English name for the Pokémon or not, but it doesn't matter right now; I might change it later if the name changes. **

**The same old Pokémon doing the same old things gets old, right? This story is set far, far into the future compared to the last two Mystery Dungeon games; thus we've got a spankin' new cast of crazies. Fun times, no?**


	5. Chapter 3: Start A Fire

**C **_**h a p t e r **_**3**

She sighed as she followed him; while it was good to be away from Magnus – how far was his creepy mental range? – she still just wanted to get the whole process over with.

_The sooner we get our stupid legend team thing going, the better, _she thought.

"Where's the registration place thing?"

"We're almost there, it's a little farther," Singe said with a glance in her direction. Sapphire let out a slightly irritated growl, but said nothing more; her comments had been pushing Singe, and she knew that. She didn't want to push him too far. She did need his help, after all, and although he appeared to be decently mellow, appearances could easily be deceiving.

There was another building at the end of the street, but this one didn't look like the others. It was colored sensibly, a soft blend of beige and white. It was neither small, nor was it large, and it sat snugly between two other buildings that were also carefully nondescript. The thing that made the building stand out, however, was the large insignia mounted on the front of the building, atop the shop front; it appeared to be a large egg, split in half between white and pink, with shiny, metallic wings on either side. There was a gleaming bulletin board to the left of the shop as well, full of colorful papers. Sapphire was momentarily dazzled; the sunlight bounced off of the egg and board, which, along with the sparkling dew, reminded her of glittering stars all clustered together. She smiled at the thought, then blinked; were the stars the same here as they were where she used to live? Would she recognize the constellations?

_Was I an astronomer? I can't remember. Surely Trainers used the stars to find out where they were going…?_

"Is that the building?" she asked, and Singe nodded; his green eyes gleamed with excitement as he headed for the shop front.

"Hello?" he asked, a tremor of nervousness in his voice. "Hello?"

"What?" a voice snapped. A Combusken appeared, squinting at them suspiciously with beady red eyes before leaning with one elbow against the counter, his head resting idly in his feather-like fingers. "Let me guess, another couple of whiny kids want to start a legend team 'cuz they think they can actually be somethin' good?" He shook his head. "Dude, don't even try it. In a few weeks you'll be snapping at each other and fighting and hatin' each other. It's really not worth it, trust me. You'll never be anything good, leave it to the big kids on the playground, 'kay?"

Sapphire and Singe exchanged glances.

"Um, thanks for the advice, but I think we're going to make a team anyway," Singe said. "The circumstances are a little…special. I'm pretty sure our team will be important."

The Combusken heaved a sigh. "No one ever listens to me. Why not? Just because I haven't fully evolved yet doesn't mean I can't be trusted! Dude, I'm important!" His voice cracked with the last word; Sapphire realized that he was quite possibly still going through puberty. She glanced at Singe again.

"I guess most humans don't know this, but our evolutionary forms usually coincide with age," Singe whispered to her. "Combusken is a middle form, so it's kind of like a teenage form for humans…I think if he was a human he'd be in…sky-school? Is that what they call it? And soon he'd be going to…the Collage?"

Sapphire laughed quietly. "High school and college, Singe," she replied. Singe nodded.

"Well, yeah, like I was saying; some species go through phases more quickly than others. Those that only have one evolution tend to mature quickly; those with three…don't." He gave the Combusken a side glance.

"Skylar, we don't think you're not important," Singe said kindly. "We respect your opinion. But things are a little different with our rescue team."

The Combusken glared at them. "Everyone says that," he grumbled. "I said that, you know? But my team crashed and burned…really burned, man, it was…." His eyes seemed to glow with a strange light, although Sapphire wasn't sure what he had found so alluring, the idea of his team burning, or something else.

"Be right back," the Combusken said, sounding oddly more cheerful than before. He trotted off, coming back within minutes with a piece of paper clutched in his feather-like fingers.

"Alright, just sign both your names on these lines," he said, indicating the lines with a point. "And your team name and stuff too…." He trailed off, staring at Singe's tail as if hypnotized by the fire. "Man, that's so cool," he breathed. "Wish my tail was on fire…dude, you know what would be awesome? If you signed your name in _fire!"_ A broad grin split his face. Singe looked uncomfortable.

"Er, that would be cool," he said, "but…it's a paper. Made of paper. So it would…burn."

Skylar frowned at him. "Dude, killjoy. You could always just make another one…honestly, no one appreciates my ideas! I have a mind, you know? I'm a Pokemon too, aren't I? God!" Skylar stormed into the back of the store. Sapphire and Singe glanced at each other again.

"I hope Skylar keeps a lot of copies of these," Singe said anxiously, picking up a piece of charcoal from the desk and signing his name rather sloppily. He handed it to Sapphire; she clutched it awkwardly with her stubby fingers, letting out an irritated growl as her name became an illegible smudge on the paper, thanks to her clumsiness. She barely spared the paper and its several long paragraphs of cramped writing a glance, before throwing the charcoal back onto the counter. She ground her fangs together with frustration, half-hoping Skylar would return and burn the paper so she could try again.

"Oh!" Singe exclaimed, staring down at the paper. "Jeez, Sapphire, know what? We didn't think about a name for our legend team!"

Sapphire blinked. "Are they important?" she asked, remembering Lune's team. What had been their name? She couldn't remember if she had heard it.

"What should we name it?" she asked. Singe blinked at her.

"You're our team leader," he said. "You decide."

Sapphire blinked, surprised by his apparent trust in her. "I'm team leader?"

Singe grinned, fangs glinting brightly. "Of course, Sapphire! You're the human-turned-Pokemon, remember? You're destined for greatness and all that, you have to be leader! I'd just mess everything up, anyway." He looked downcast for a moment, but quickly brightened. "What are we gonna name our team, then?"

Sapphire was taken aback; she had no idea. "What kind of names do teams take?" she asked, confused.

"Well, Lune's team is Team Darkspark," Singe said slowly. Sapphire laughed, and Singe blinked at her, puzzled.

"Come on, really?" she scoffed. "Team Darkspark? It _rhymes."_

"Yes, yes it does," Singe said, the humor clearly lost on him. Sapphire wondered if the humor was a human thing; maybe Pokemon thought different things were funny.

Sapphire frowned at him. "Well, we aren't naming ourselves Team Brightlight, if that's what your hoping." She giggled quietly, but Singe looked nonplussed.

"Why not? I mean, my tail is kind if bright…." He trailed off uncertainly. "But, I mean, if you don't like it…."

Sapphire stared at him. "Er, no, Singe. I'm pretty sure we'd be a laughing stock with that." She frowned, trying to think. "Team Sapphire Flame?"

"It fits, but it sounds kind of…clumsy?" Singe said slowly. "Team Water Flame, maybe?"

"Nah, that sounds weird, and it's still too long. We need something short and sweet. Team…Team…." She rubbed her hand against her lower jaw, trying to think.

"Team Sange?"

Sapphire stared at him. "What?"

Singe sweatdropped. "Er, it just has our names in it…Sapphire and Singe…."

"Touching as that is, that jumble of noise is really an awful name," Sapphire growled. Singe looked at his feet, embarrassed. "But having both of our names in it would make sense," Sapphire conceded. "I want everyone to know our names. I want us to be known all over the land!" Her ruby-red eyes glowed with ambition, and Singe smiled.

"That's the spirit," he purred. "Any ideas?"

_Drop the 'n', it sounds awkward, _she thought. _Team Sage? No, Sage sounds weak…it's just a squishy little plant. So, no, not Sage…Sipphire? Not even a word, and it sounds dumb to…I'm the leader, it makes sense for my name to go first. And since there's two of us, Singe takes up the rear...But we're gonna be a big team. We're going to have lots following us; we're going to have a lot of Pokemon within the team. So there needs to be space in between our names…But what word has that?_

Singe sighed. "I can't think of anything, Sapphire, I'm sorry. I can't think of anything that really sounds good…everything sounds stupid in my head. I mean, we want Pokemon chanting our names, don't we? And anything I think of sounds stupid in a chant." He sighed. "I don't want some baby name, you know? Dungeons are brutal, and feral Pokemon are downright savage. We have to be tough to beat them, and—" he stopped speaking, and frowned at her. "Sapphire, are you alright?"

"That's it," she whispered, eyes gleaming with excitement. "Savage. Team Savage."

Singe's green eyes widened. "Team Savage?" he echoed, and a grin spread over his face. "Sapphire, it's perfect."

Sapphire grinned back at him, her scales tingling with excitement. She eagerly reached for the charcoal, only to find that Singe had already grabbed it.

"No offense, Sapphire, but I think I need to write our name. It's kind of important, and your handwriting…." He glanced at her illegible name smudged into the paper, and Sapphire flushed with embarrassment.

"Fine," she grumbled, and Singe quickly scribbled their name down. "Skylar, we're finished!" he called, and the Combusken stomped back.

"God, about time," he snapped, snatching the paper from them.

"You make copies of those, right?" Singe asked anxiously. Skylar gave him a scathing glance.

"Of course, duh," he growled. "We have to. Sometimes I just get that urge to set something on fire…you know?" He glanced at Singe's tail, and seemed on the verge of becoming hypnotized again before he quickly glanced away. He went into back room, coming back with a bundle of items clutched in his grasp.

"Here's your Goodie Bag, Item Box, whatever," he grunted, setting down a large container. It appeared to be a Stanler-skin bag – synthetic, of course – with a draw string and a strap to wear it. Singe quickly grabbed it, putting it on with a grin as the bag settled against his hip. He gave it a pat, then poured in his berries and set the purse of coins inside. He shook it, and the bag gave a pleasant gamble.

"Here's your team badge," Skylar said, handing them a little badge identical to the egg with wings hanging just over their heads. "The more missions and stuff you do, the higher your rank. It'll glitter when you've gotten a new rank; come to me to get it upgraded and stuff." He nodded to the bag. "It won't hold much yet, but it will once you upgrade your badge. You'll get some neat rewards too, and of course be one step closer to qualifying for the next legend team tournament, whenever they hold one. Also, there's a Staraptor feather there; put it on your mailbox, and he'll know to deliver the news and jobs to you ever day. If you forget or take it down, you won't get anything from him. If you've taken too many missions at one time and can't take anymore, take the feather down so he doesn't give you new mail; it slows him down and it makes him angry if he can't deliver it to you. You don't want to see him angry."

Singe nodded, clutching the items tightly. "Thank you, Skylar!"

The Combusken waved him away. "Don't bother me. Now, if you're looking for your first mission, you can either wait for the mail in the morning, or look at the bulletin board over there. Select the kind of mission you want."

Singe nodded eagerly, trotting to the left of the shop; Sapphire followed him. The bulletins board was huge, containing jobs from all over the country. Sapphire blinked; they were obviously color-coded in some way, and it appeared that the board was split in half, with jobs grouped on either side.

"Rescue missions, escort missions, and item missions are here," Singe said, pointing to the left. "And then bounty missions are on the right. They're really dangerous, though, I wouldn't want to try and do one of those. You have to track down and beat up a bad Pokemon, and you get a bounty for it. They can make you rich fast, and they're worth a lot of points…but they're really dangerous." He squinted at the missions on the left; they were various colors, but only one was a pale, inviting pink.

"We can only do pink-ranked missions for now," Singe said, gesturing towards the little egg pinned on their bag. "When we go up a rank and find new dungeons, we can do better missions and stuff."

Sapphire nodded, and squinted at the pink mission. Singe took the tacks off of it, reading it aloud.

"Dear Legend Teams,

"My darling baby and I were taking a stroll through the woods, when the earth suddenly started to shake beneath us! I was so afraid that I dropped my poor child, and the earth was vibrating so hard that she started to bounce! I'm sure you all know what happens when an Igglybuff starts bouncing…they just can't stop! I gave chase, but I was too slow, and I couldn't catch up to her. I tried following her but I found myself in a scary dungeon; I wanted to save her, but I'm afraid I'm not strong enough…but I just can't leave my baby! Please help me!

"Jigglypuff."

Sapphire blinked slowly. "Her daughter…bounced?"

Singe nodded. "There's a rumor that if an Igglybuff starts bouncing, they'll keep bouncing forever. I guess that's true…let's see…the mystery dungeon is a little place called Sunlit Meadow. The Jigglypuff thinks her daughter is probably on the last floor of the dungeon…I guess she bounced out of harm's way, or something."

"And the reward?" Sapphire pressed.

"Well, it's the easiest rank – E – so we'll only earn like five points for our team…and the reward probably won't be very good…but still, we can't leave the baby Pokemon down there, right? It's the only mission we can do, and Jigglypuff is depending on us!" Singe puffed out his chest. "Sapphire, we've got to take it!"

"I thought I was team leader?" Sapphire sulked, and Singe blinked.

"Er, yeah, you are. Sorry, I guess it's your call…."

"Well…." Sapphire pretended to think it over just to make Singe squirm. Then, she sighed. "Well, I guess we have to go do it, don't we? For the Jigglypuff."

Singe's eyes gleamed. "Great, Sapphire!" he grinned broadly. "We can leave right now if you like. Or, maybe we could go visit a few more—"

"Let's go!"

. . .

Singe headed down the path out of the village like he knew the way, so Sapphire simply let him lead. She didn't know the territory herself, obviously, so if he knew where this "Sunlit Meadow" was, more power to him.

_The letter mentioned feral Pokemon again, _she thought. _What are they? Are they a different breed from normal Pokemon…? I should ask Singe…but honestly, this place sounds like a pushover. I mean, 'Sunlit Meadow'? What kind of a name is that, really?_

"So, you already know where this meadow place is?" Sapphire asked, feeling relaxed as they left the village behind. The wind rustled gently through the trees as the birds sang overhead – _Wait, birds?_

She looked up in time to see a little sparrow chirping down at them, beady eyes bright as it fluttered its brown wings. Sapphire blinked, confused.

"I thought those sorts of things didn't exist? Birds and little animals?" Sapphire asked. Singe glanced over his shoulder at her, puzzled.

"Of course they do," he said. "What else would the meat-eating Pokemon eat, right?"

Sapphire hadn't considered it. Nor had she considered the fact that she hadn't eaten since she arrived in this strange world. As if on cue, her stomach growled at her.

"But where did they come from?" she pressed. "In my world, there aren't any normal animals and stuff. There's only Pokemon."

"Your world is different from ours," Singe said, as if the difference was obvious. Sapphire frowned at him, but he didn't notice as he pursued the winding path through the forest.

"Now, keep in mind that mystery dungeons are, well, mysterious," Singe said. "There's lots of stuff we know, but lots of stuff we don't, so crazy things can happen sometimes. And we don't know why a lot of stuff works, like how orbs and TMs and stuff show up. Mystery dungeons have a lot of levels; they're most obvious in caves, when stairs link each level. In forests and meadows and stuff, it's a bit different…but you'll see. Luckily this dungeon only has four floors, so it'll be short.

"Each floor is like a little maze, full of feral Pokemon, items, and hopefully some way to get to the next level. They're kind of like mazes, full of little rooms and hallways and stuff. You have to stay on the path, even in a forest or meadow; if you stray from it without some sort of special item, you could get lost forever."

Sapphire's scales crawled at the very idea of wandering a giant maze for eternity.

"Of course, our badges are timed to take us home by sundown," Singe continued, "but it's still extremely dangerous."

Sapphire rubbed her head with one hand. "This is a lot to take in," she complained. "It's so different from being a Trainer…I think." She sighed.

Singe gave her a sympathetic look. "Don't worry, Sapphire. It all seems confusing today…but someday, you'll know it all. It'll be practically second-nature, and you'll be wondering how you didn't understand it all before."

Sapphire shook her head. "I don't think that will ever happen," she said, "but whatever you say, I guess."

Singe reached out to squeeze her hand, before sniffing the air. "Ah, smell that? All those flowers?" he asked. Sapphire sniffed, then nodded. "That means we're close!"

Singe broke into a run, with Sapphire following awkwardly. There was a low humming feeling, much like Magnus's energy, that seemed to get stronger the farther they walked. It made her scales crawl, and she wanted nothing more than to turn back, but Singe wasn't afraid. If he wasn't, then she wouldn't be afraid either.

They reached the top of a ridge, and Sapphire gasped at the meadow that sprawled before them. She could see a small, sandy path leading into the thick grass, full of swaying flowers and strange noises, but beyond that she could see nothing.

"They say the paths are formed when you actually go in," Singe said, "but since you can't see what the inside is like when you're outside, no one knows for sure."

Sapphire could see some sort of pink creature hovering near the end of the trail.

"Jigglypuff!" Singe shouted, cupping his hands over his mouth. The pink creature turned, and Sapphire blinked at the largest pair of blue eyes she'd ever seen.

"We're coming to help! Just hang on!" Singe shouted, running down the ridge. Sapphire followed as quickly as she could, terrified of falling again.

Her body seemed to almost think it was still a human; roughly every other step, her foot would come down hard and a shock would run down her spine as her leg landed where her body thought it shouldn't. Her body seemed convinced that her legs were at least twice as long as they actually were. If she had been a human, she would have compared it to trying to walk on her knees.

They finally made it to the bottom, and Sapphire resisted the urge to kiss the sweet earth and thank the stars that she hadn't fallen again.

"Are you two here to help me?" the Jigglypuff asked anxiously, wringing her stubby pink hands. "Are you going to find my baby?"

Singe gave her a warm smile. "We're going to try. We're Team Savage, ma'am, the team that doesn't quit! We'll bring your baby back safely."

"Oh, thank you!" the Jigglypuff's eyes were red and puffy, as if she'd been crying. "I've been so worried…her name is Cookie; if she's stopped bouncing, she might come if you call…but she could still be bouncing, I don't know…." Her eyes brimmed with fresh tears. "Just bring her back safely!"

"We will," Singe promised, and motioned for Sapphire to follow him. "We'll be back with Cookie before you know it!"

Singe took a step forward, and the very air seemed to shimmer as he disappeared into the grass. Sapphire blinked with alarm, then quickly tried to hide it from the anxious mother. Stomach churning, she quickly trotted after Singe.

The air shimmered around her, and if she'd had hair it would have stood straight up as she entered the mystery dungeon. She closed her eyes as she passed through.

When she opened them, she was staring down a small path between the swaying grass.

**AN: How do normal animals exist here? What lies in wait in the dreaded Sunlit Meadow? We'll see next time!**

**And maybe we'll finally get some action,, yes? And moar reviews? :D**

**The thing Singe told Sapphy (someday she'll know everything) is actually exactly what I told myself the first time I played PMD. It was so confusing, but I just told myself that eventually everything would make perfect sense, and I'd be a pro…and now I have a Totodile who's beaten almost every dungeon and has max stats. ^_^**


	6. Chapter 4: Fight The Good Fight

**C **_**h a p t e r **_**4**

The grass was absolutely enormous, growing well over her head and hiding anything but the path before her. The sickly-sweet scent of flowers filled her nostrils, and she wrinkled her nose.

She suddenly realized that Singe was nowhere to be seen. Irrational panic rose up within her, and she ran forward, blundering down the path as quickly as she could.

"Singe, where—oof!" She ran head-first into the Charmander as she turned the corner. Sapphire fell backwards, landing on her tail.

"Ouch," she said ruefully, struggling to sit up. Singe blinked, holding out a hand.

"Didn't mean to leave you behind, sorry; I thought you were right behind me," he said. Sapphire glared at him, ignoring his helping hand.

"I don't need your help," she growled, getting to her feet. Singe looked hurt, but he shrugged it off.

"Our badge didn't gleam, so Cookie isn't on this floor, I guess," he said quietly. "We'd better hurry to the next one."

Sapphire wanted to ask about the badge, but she gritted her teeth; she was angry at Singe for leaving her behind.

_It's not like I can't get up by myself, _she thought crossly, ignoring her multiple falls. _I don't need his help. I just don't like being left behind._

Singe must have seen the curiosity in her eyes, however, and he answered her unspoken question. "The badges are kind of…magic. It's something else that no one understands. But if they sense the energy – Luke says they might read aura – of the target of the mission, they glow really brightly to alert us."

Sapphire gave him a little nod, and Singe continued to walk.

"I'd let you lead, Sapphire, but there's no room," Singe said after an awkward silence, sensing her fuming anger. "These hallways are really narrow…when we enter a room, you can—" He broke off as a clearing in the thick grass opened up before them. Sapphire pushed past him, glancing around the clearing quickly. It appeared to be a perfect square; eerily perfect.

_Not made by nature, _she thought uneasily. _What _are _these dungeon things?_

"Look, Sapphire!" Singe exclaimed, dashing towards one corner of the room. A large bush, full of blue berries, glistened invitingly with dew-touched leaves. Sapphire waddled after him, blinking at the blue berries.

"Oran berries?" she asked, remembering the berries already in their bag.

"No, these are Chesto berries," Singe answered. "Very different. Oran berries heal you; they fill you with energy and help your body heal even faster than it does in a dungeon. Chesto berries keep you awake; eating one can make you feel more alert. If you're holding one, the fumes will keep you awake. If you fall asleep, your friend can feed it to you and you'll wake up."

Sapphire nodded, sniffing the berries. She recoiled, nose wrinkling again. "They smell gross."

"You don't like dry food, huh?" Singe asked with a smile. "Me neither. But, we'll need them, probably. Help me pick them?"

Sapphire nodded, stepping forward to pluck the berries from the tree, placing them in the bag.

"Always leave at least two, even if you can get more," Singe instructed as the bag began to swell. "It's common courtesy, you know."

Sapphire rolled her eyes, but she didn't see why they'd need too many of the berries anyway. Sure, there were plenty of sleep-causing moves, but wouldn't a few berries be enough for this mission?

_Thinking ahead, I guess…smart, _she thought grudgingly. _Singe is a bit…weird – too cheerful, for one thing – but he's not outright stupid. _

"Alright, let's keep going," Singe said finally as they finished their harvest. "You can pick which way to go."

Sapphire glanced around the clearing again, seeing that there were two more branches for them to explore.

"To the right," she decided, heading forwards. Singe dutifully followed her, as they entered the narrow hallway. The pathway turned to the left, and Sapphire abruptly stopped; it was a dead end.

She flushed with embarrassment. _I should have known better, _she thought angrily, clenching her fists. _Don't I have instincts for this sort of thing? How did I make such a blunder?_

"Dead end?" Singe asked, peeking over her shoulder. "Ah well. I guess it's the other side then, huh?"

She heard him turn away behind her, already heading down the hallway, assuming she was following just like she had before. An inexplicable burst of irritation came over her, and she let out a growl.

"Singe," she hissed, turning. "You—aah!"

The attack came out of nowhere. One moment she was ready to unleash her fury upon the Charmander, the next she was on her side, feeling a piercing pain as claws raked down her abdomen. She let out a yelp of pain, anger forgotten.

"Singe! Singe, I need your help!" she yelled, abandoning her pride to the panic that was taking over.

"Sapphire?" she heard Singe call. "Sapphire, where are you—oh!"

Sapphire turned her head, trying to see her assailant; all she could see was a blur of brown feathers, all different shades, as the claws and beak struck again and again. She rolled to one side, trying to get out of the way.

"Singe, help! What do I do?"

"Use a move, Sapphire! You've gotta use a move like—oof!" Sapphire turned to see that Singe had fallen as well; two Pidgeys swarmed on him, pecking with their sharp beaks.

Sapphire's own Pidgey was on her again with a single wingbeat. Sapphire flailed with her stubby limbs, mind racing.

_Trainers tell their Pokémon to use moves when they fight, _she thought, _so it must be the same thing for us…but how do I use one? What moves do I even know?_

As the panic rose within her, seeming to choke her, the Pidgey succeeded in flipping her onto her back. Before she could do anything, the Pidgey plunged its beak forward, landing right in the middle of the yellow V-shape that splashed her chest.

Sapphire screamed as the beak made contact, unimaginable pain surging through her body. Without thinking, she flung her claws forward. There was a flash of white light as they connected to the Pidgey's side, and the Pidgey was thrown away by the force of her strike. Sapphire staggered to her feet; the Pidgey lay motionless, blood seeping up from a deep gash on its chest.

_W-what did I just do? What just happened? _Sapphire wondered. _Did I kill it?_

As if on cue, the Pidgey began to stir. It gave her an angry glare, before disappearing into the grass with a flutter of wings. Remembering Singe, Sapphire quickly turned, although she wasn't sure how much help she would be. She needn't have worried; Singe's claws were glowing as he slashed at the two Pidgeys attacking him, and they were quickly ran off. Singe turned to her, concern gleaming in his green eyes.

"Sapphire, are you okay? I had no idea they'd mob us like that, I'm so sorry!" He moved forward to help, but Sapphire shook her head.

"I'm fine," she growled, and found that to her surprise, she was; the Pidgey's beak had been unable to penetrate her hard scales, save for the V-shaped mark on her chest. There, the wound ached, and as she tried to look down at it past her long snout, she could see the wound oozing blood. Singe blinked at her anxiously.

"They got you right in your weak spot, didn't they?" he asked. "Hang on a minute." He pawed through their item bag, finally selecting one of the round blue Oran berries. Sapphire opened her mouth to protest, but Singe only poked through the soft skin with one claw and dribbled a bit of the juice on the wound. Sapphire's protests faded away in her throat as she let out a soft sigh; the juice was soothing and cool. Singe put the berry back in the item bag, after rubbing a bit of juice in his scratches.

"What's a weak spot?" Sapphire asked, rubbing the juice in deeper; it would have been awkward if she'd been human, but she wasn't, and she doubted such hands-off-the-female-chest rules applied with Pokémon .

"Well, most Trainers don't know this, but every single Pokémon in the whole world has a weak spot," Singe answered. "Some Trainers can guess a certain Pokémon 's weak spot, but so far none of them know that every single Pokémon has one. Mine, for example, is my tail." He flicked it as he spoke, the flame flickering.

"Yeah, I know that," Sapphire said. "If it goes out, you die, right?" She suddenly realized how precarious it was for Singe to have a Water type as a partner.

Singe laughed quietly. "No, that's just a silly human rumor…but a lot of human rumors come from our weak spots. Even if my tail goes out completely, I won't die; I'll just pass out until my tail is rekindled. It also really hurts a lot, though. My evolved forms have stronger flames; dousing a Charizard's flame is nearly impossible, and even if you do it won't knock it out, just put it in a lot of pain. Your weakness is that little V-mark. Your evolved forms have the same weakness."

"Every single Pokémon has one?"

Singe nodded. "Every single one. Take Magnus, for example; believe it or not, his skull is very fragile around his big brain. Hit him between the eyes, and it will hurt him a lot. For Libby, it's her tail, for Luke his ears, for Zee his stubby little arms…I don't know about Miss Liss, but I'm sure she has one too. Pidgeys have a weakness where their wings attach to their bodies; that's how I was able to send them both packing." He cocked his head to one side. "You seem to be healed. Feel better?"

Sapphire looked down and found that to her surprise, the wound had developed a scab that already looked several days old. She blinked at him, puzzled.

"Mystery dungeons make your body heal more quickly," he explained. "You use energy faster than normal; that's why it's easier to use attacks and heal here than in the normal world. Unfortunately, that means every time you use a move or heal you burn a lot of energy, so you get hungry faster."

"Why did those Pokémon attack us?" Sapphire asked. Singe opened his mouth, then shook his head.

"Let's walk as we talk," he suggested, and she followed him back into the large, open room. This time she chose the other path, and he followed her closely.

"The Pokémon that attacked us were called feral Pokémon ," Singe explained as they wandered through the maze. "A long time ago, all Pokémon were feral. But then, the humans came, and Pokémon began to change. Some Pokémon were tamed even before the PokéBalls were created. Of course, once the PokéBalls were created, even more Pokémon were captured and tamed. But, of course, some managed to escape. These Pokémon found their way back into the wild and began to teach the feral Pokémon all they'd learned. That's how we learned to write, read, build real houses. Because of humans, Pokémon developed their own civilization.

"But this was, of course, very dangerous. If Trainers knew that Pokémon could make their own towns and villages, we'd be in danger. Thousands of years ago, most civilized Pokémon congregated in places on the coast, all to the south of every region. The Legendaries – Groudon was especially helpful – simply broke those parts off of the main region, and then combined them together into a brand new region, altering the region in places to suit all Pokémon . Then, they used Palkia to hide it in a pocket of space where no Trainer could ever find it. Thus humans will never find the region."

"However, any Pokémon that wants to become civilized can find their way here if they can find a certain spot in the ocean. You see, our region isn't in like an entirely new universe; it's just hidden…I guess you could say there are "space walls" around it. But if you can find the entrance, you can get inside and find the region. Humans can't get in at all, even if they find the right spot.

"That's why the Transformed were such a big deal when they first appeared, you see; it scared everyone to think that our home could actually be found by humans when they were in the form of Pokémon ."

"But if the civilized Pokémon are here, what about the feral Pokémon ?"

"Like I said, the Legendary just carved off pieces of land from the many human regions," Singe explained. "Their histories attribute it to volcanic events, I think, which is almost true. But if course, when the Legendary moved the land, there were wild Pokémon on the land too, and they were brought along for the ride…which they weren't happy about. Entire families were separated because of the move (we call it the "Great Shift") but there was nothing they could do, they were stuck here.

"They blamed the civilized Pokémon for this, but they were outnumbered and there wasn't much they could do. Tensions didn't really begin to flare until the comet came, and along with it the first of the Transformed. There were many awful natural disasters that made things incredibly hard for Pokémon everywhere, especially the feral Pokémon who had no homes to run to and hide. They attacked civilized villages, and caused panic to spread over the entire region. Then, the Transformed appeared. Now, although it was hundreds of generations later, the feral Pokémon thought back to the Great Shift and thought that their sacrifice was in vain, for surely the Tansformed would become human again and reveal their great secret region to the world. They were enraged.

"The Transformed of course stopped the comet and the natural disasters eased, but the feral Pokémon were still angry. There were battles and riots, with feral Pokémon versus civilized Pokémon . The feral Pokémon attacked villages, blocked roads, destroyed supply lines…the region was on the verge of collapsing.

"The Legendary were forced to step in. There was only one thing they could do. They couldn't Teleport the feral Pokémon away; they would only tell the humans about the secret region in revenge for all their pain. The feral Pokémon had to remain in the region. So, they enlisted Palkia's help again; this time he made secret environments for them to live in, all kinds, and scattered them all over the regions. The Legendary Teleported all the feral Pokémon to those secret environments, and Palkia hid them just like he did our region…like mini regions inside a bigger region."

"The mystery dungeons," Sapphire nodded, and was rewarded by a bright smile.

"Exactly. This is all the feral Pokémon have now, and they'll fight as hard as they have to in order to protect it. They're very territorial."

They entered another room; Singe bent over to pluck a bright yellow seed from the ground. He sniffed it.

"Stun seed, I think," he said, tossing it into the bag. "They—"

"Stun you," Sapphire said. "I'm not a total idiot."

He blinked. "Of course not, Sapphire, no one thinks that. You're just new, it' s a lot to take in."

She rolled her eyes at him. "What if we see more feral Pokémon ?"

"I'm sure we will. Just use Scratch again, and aim for their weak spot. You'll be fine."

"I don't even know how I did it the first time," Sapphire complained. "It just happened when that bird attacked me."

"Probably because of your special ability," Singe said. "Every Pokémon has those, too, before you ask. Yours – and mine – is that when we take a lot of damage and are near the breaking point, we actually gain strength. Our body goes into overdrive; it's hard to keep us down. That's why we're often used as "starter" Pokémon for Trainers. But don't worry, Scratch is one of the easiest attacks ever. Just focus your energy into your claws, and strike. Easy peasy."

Sapphire nodded, and tried to focus, stealing glances at her claws every few seconds as they headed down another hallway, but her claws did not glow.

"A Flagstone! Finally!" Singe chirped, racing forward, bursting into another room; evidentally he saw something that she did not. In the center of the room, a small purple rat-like creature chattered at them angrily; Sapphire hoped it would run, but it bared its fangs.

"Rattata are weak on their whiskers," Singe said, tensing. "Take this one, Sapphire. You need the experience of a real battle."

_I thought the Pidgey was a real battle, _Sapphire thought worriedly, but she couldn't back down. She stepped forward, advancing on the rat; it quivered, but didn't back down. Sapphire bared her fangs, preparing herself, when the Rattata suddenly sprang forward, knocking her over. It clamped its sharp teeth on her arm, and Sapphire screeched in pain.

_Focus your energy! _She thought, adrenaline rushing through her body. _Focus your energy on your claws!_

She felt a strange sensation on her hand, a sort of tingling, almost a burning itch. Without looking down at them, she struck, slashing then down the rat's whiskers. There was a flash of white light, and the Rattata fell backwards off of her; two whiskers had been sliced clean off.

Sapphire got to her feet, preparing for another attack, but there was no need; the Rattata didn't move.

"You knocked it out!" Singe grinned. "Nice job, Sapphire! You're really strong!" He grinned widely, and Sapphire found that it was impossible to resist his good cheer. She found herself smiling back, heartened by her success.

"Come on, there's a Flagstone here," Singe said, walking past her. She followed him, blinking curiously as he stopped in front of a large, smooth gray rock that seemed to be imbedded in the ground.

"What is it?" she asked, drawing nearer with caution.

"Caves and tunnels and stuff have Stairs to take you to higher floors," he explained. "Forests and meadows have Flagstones. Go on, step on it."

She looked at him uncertainly, but he motioned her forward.

_He's not the type to pull a cruel prank, so it must be okay, _she thought, and stepped forward. The rock didn't move until she planted both feet firmly upon it; then, it seemed to sink into the ground with a quiet click.

There was a gust of wind, and Sapphire shielded her face with one arm, closing her eyes. When she opened them, she found that what had previously been a wall of grass in front of them had given way to a small path.

"Welcome to Floor 2 of the Sunlit Meadow," Singe said with a grin, pulling her off of the Flagstone and onto the new path. As soon as they left the room, the grass suddenly sprung up behind them, shielding the fallen Rattata and Flagstone from view.

"What just happened?" Sapphire exclaimed.

"We're on the second floor now," Singe explained. "I told you, things are weird here. Remember those "space-walls?" With forests and meadows, think of each "floor" as being contained by its own space-walls. Pressing Flagstones lets you move through the space-wall onto the next floor, but you leave the last floor behind. Kind of like Stairs let you move up and down through space in caves and tunnels, Flagstones push you to the side in space. We're now on the second floor of the dungeon."

"Are things more dangerous now?"

"In a bigger, tougher dungeon, definitely! For example, in one dungeon you might see Sandshrews early on, and Sandslashes later…but on a dungeon as small and near civilization as this one, there are only weak feral Pokémon and the dungeon won't get much harder."

"So we just run around finding Flagstones on each floor until we reach the end and find the Igglybuff?"

Singe grinned at her. "Pretty much."

Sapphire couldn't help but smile back. _These dungeons things might actually be sort of fun._

**AN: The stuff that the Pokémon don't understand isn't just me taking the easy way out while trying to explain the dungeons. The Pokémon don't know, but we'll find out eventually. **

**Also, now that we've had some good questions I'll begin answering them on my blog. Remember, the link is in my profile.**

**I thought we'd find out about birds and insects this chappy, but it didn't work out. Ah, well…still, plenty of fun info!**


	7. Chapter 5: Like A Boss

**C **_**h a p t e r **_**5**

The second "floor" of the Sunlit Meadow proved to be much of the same as Floor 1. They saw several more feral Pokemon, which were quickly defeated through the combined efforts of Sapphire and Singe. After being defeated, most of the feral Pokemon scurried away, giving Sapphire a sense of pride in how the feral Pokemon were already beginning to fear her, even thought the feral Pokemon were quite weak. However, as she learned, there were limits to how much she was allowed to do.

"I've got this one," Sapphire told Singe as they entered a room to find a Rattata lying in wait. Singe nodded, sitting back and watching as Sapphire took a step forward.

"Come on," Sapphire growled, giving the Rattata a challenging motion with her stubby fingers. The Rattata let out a shrill cry and sprang forward. Sapphire moved to the side, slicing the Rattata on the side with a glancing Scratch. The Rattata let out a screech of anger, charging forward again. It moved more quickly than Sapphire expected, succeeding in knocking her to the ground. Its sharp fangs struck, biting into her tender nose. Sapphire screamed in pain, then struck the Rattata with a second Scratch, sending it flying, taking a bit of her nose with it.

Sapphire touched her throbbing nose gently; her hand came away stained with red. Anger crackled over her scales, and she advanced upon the fallen Rattata, which laid on its side moving feebly. Blood oozes from several small gashes on its side where her claws had penetrated through its soft purple fur.

"You little—" she snarled, only to blink in surprise as she found Singe standing between her and the Rattata.

"What are you doing? Get out of the way," she growled.

"You can't hurt it, Sapphire, it's beaten," Singe said. "Come on, we've got Cookie to save."

"Look what it did to my nose!" Sapphire exclaimed, pointing to her bloody snout. "The little rat is going to pay!"

"You beat it, Sapphire, that's punishment enough. For ferals, it's the worst thing that can happen to them, being at the mercy of an invading Pokemon that is much stronger than them. It's like being face-to-face with a predator; that's why they hate us so much. They're terrified that someday the civilized Pokemon might decide to claim their home once and for all." He glanced over his shoulder at the Rattata, which was struggling to get to its paws and run away. "Legend teams are here to help, not kick Pokemon that are already down and terrified. We're here to preserve the peace, and that is why we show them mercy."

Sapphire let out an irritated breath through her nose, then sighed; the aching in her nose was already disappearing and it was no longer bleeding, thanks to the dungeon's strange powers. "Fine," she said gruffly, brushing past him and heading into the next hallway. She didn't hear his footsteps behind her, and she turned to see him actually carrying the beaten creature towards the grass. "What are you doing?"

"He won't make it back into the grass himself, and it's dangerous to leave him here. Predators prey on beaten Pokemon like him, ones that can't get away. He'll be safe in the grass," Singe called. He reached into the seemingly impenetrable grass, keeping his own two feet firmly on the dusty ground as he laid the Rattata down. As soon as Singe moved back, the grass sprang up, shielding the Rattata from view.

Sapphire could only shake her head at his softness. "You didn't do that for the first Rattata I beat," she pointed out.

"We were near a Flagstone then, I knew the grass would spring up again when we got to the next floor, and he'd be safe," Singe said, breaking into a trot to catch up. "We haven't found the Flagstone here yet, and we have no idea where it is."

"Don't we have a map for this, or something?" Sapphire complained. Singe blinked in surprise, as if he'd remembered something. He opened their item pouch and rooted around inside, finally appearing with a strange piece of paper. On one side, it showed a strange-looking picture; looking closer, Sapphire saw that it was a landmass surrounded by water, dotted with strange landforms and little notes scrawled over the page.

Singe flipped the paper over, and smiled. "Here we go," he said, pointing at it. Sapphire leaned over for a better look.

"This is the layout of the dungeon, everything we've seen so far!" she exclaimed. "There's Floor 1…and here's Floor 2!" She stared at him. "What is this? Why didn't we have this earlier? This would have been useful when we were running in circles…look, right there!" She pointed to a hallway that ended in an odd square circle, through which Sapphire and Singe had gone three times before realizing they weren't making any progress.

Singe flushed with embarrassment. "I kind of, um, forgot…but these come with every item bag thingie. This one was at the very very bottom, though, and they're deeper than they look…anyway, it's called a Wonder Map, because—"

"It's wonderous and you don't know how it works?" Sapphire asked dryly. Singe gave a sheepish nod.

"It's another one of those weird things that happens with mystery dungeons. Outside of this dungeon, this side of the map will be completely blank. But inside, we get the layout of everything we've seen so far, like there's a Pidgey's-eye view of our journey. And here—" he flipped the map over, showing the landmass, "is the map of our whole region. See all these weird landmasses that normally wouldn't be on an island? The Legendary made those so every Pokemon could live here and be happy. There are villages and dungeons scattered near almost all of them."

"Does the region have a name?" Sapphire asked. Singe shook his head.

"Naming a region…that's sort of a human thing. See, we name towns and cities and stuff; they're ours, and we made them. And we name mystery dungeons too, because then everyone knows which one you're talking about; it's a lot easier to say 'Sunlit Meadow' than 'that mystery dungeon in a meadow that's kind of near that little village called Dewdum'. But the region…well, everyone knows what that is, and it's the entire land; we didn't make it, and we don't own it. So it doesn't have a name. It's just our home."

Sapphire nodded; it made sense in a sort of animalistic earthy kinda way, which she supposed fit Pokemon just fine.

"So, this map comes in handy," she said. "What about the other dungeons? I only see the Sunlit Meadow on here." She pointed to it on the map, a tiny golden dot next to a green dot that she guessed represented Dewdum. Dewdum was smaller than she'd expected, compared to the rest of the region; it was tucked away in a small forest.

"We've only been to Sunlit Meadow, you see, so that's all it has recorded," Singe explained. "Wonder Maps will only record dungeons that you've been too. Of course, other Pokemon can sometimes alter the map to show you a dungeon without you having to go there; Psychics like Magnus are good at that sort of thing. Luke too, because he uses the map's aura and changes it."

"And even with that, he doesn't understand how they work?" Sapphire asked. "How do the people in charge of all this stuff make them."

"They're called the Legend League, and I honestly don't know," Singe admitted. "The Legend League really doesn't talk about this stuff much, but I've asked Skylar where he gets his badge and item bags. He says they come in the mail, usually a few days before a new team signs up, like they're waiting for their new owners."

Sapphire shivered. "That's kinda creepy."

"Or miraculous, depending on how you look at it," Singe said brightly. "Now, let's look here…." He poured over the map, tracing their current route with his finger. "Ah, I see. We shouldn't go down this hall, it will probably be a dead end."

Sapphire peered down at the map. "Why?"

"Well, see these two dots? Those are us," Singe said, pointing with his finger. "And we're almost at the edge of the map; that means we're at the end of the dungeon on this side. And we're in the lower corner, so we can't go down. We can only go up, but there was a hallway to our left before, and that will probably go up instead."

Sapphire nodded, seeing the logic; she glanced over the map again, noting how Floor 1's layout was half the size of Floor 2's, and had moved into the corner rather than the center of the page.

_Floor 2's will do the same when we get to Floor 3, so we have more space, _she realized. _I wonder how it handles longer dungeons? How long can dungeons get?_

She blinked, realizing that Singe had already started walking again, moving back into the Rattata room.

"I thought I was the leader," she growled to him. Singe just flashed her a grin, stepping aside as they entered the room and allowing her to move into the next hallway first.

She strode into the next room, tense; behind her, Singe laughed. She glanced towards him, a quizzical look on her face.

"There's a Flagstone in this room; it shows up as a little blue square, see?" he pointed towards it on the map.

"What's the point in that? I can see it, it's right there."

"Hang on!" Singe exclaimed. "Once you hit a Flagstone, the floor will start to disappear. Let's grab these items first, okay?"

"Items?"

"These blue dots here are items," Singe said, "They're easy to see in a field or cave, but hard in a forest, so they're useful. Come on, let's go find them."

He trotted forward, towards a clump of bushes. Sapphire quickly followed him, watching as he rifled through the bushes.

"Oh, good, this is a Pecha bush!" Singe exclaimed. "My favorite!"

Sapphire pushed through the bush, to see him stuffing the berries into his mouth. She frowned, and he blushed, embarrassed. He swallowed the mouthful of berries, coughed awkwardly, and placed a few of the soft pink berries into the item bag.

"Ahem. Sorry. I'm just so hungry…we haven't eaten at all today, you know?"

Sapphire stomach rumbled, and she grimaced. Slowly, she picked one of the berries, placing it on her tongue nervously, fearing what it might taste like.

It seemed to melt on her tongue, and unimaginable sweetness – almost too much, really – burst into her mouth. She blinked in surprise, and swallowed quickly.

"Great, aren't they?" Singe asked, his voice almost a purr. Sapphire gave a little shrug.

"They're very, um, sweet. Which I guess is okay…." Sapphire trailed off as Singe rolled his eyes at her.

"More for me," he grinned. "Go and see if you can find these other items, I think they're over there." He waved his hand to the right. Sapphire's eyes narrowed at being ordered around, but she waddled off in the direction he'd indicated.

Several large trees dotted the right side of the room, along with some smaller bushes. She inspected the bushes curiously, but they didn't appear to have any berries on their branches. Frowning, she looked up into the tree branches, and her eyes widened. The tree was positively laden with big, beautiful, gleaming apples. Her mouth began to water at the very sight of them, and her stomach gave a feral growl.

She tried to hook her little claws into the bark, but her arms weren't strong enough to pull herself into the tree. She frowned, then gripped the thin trunk and shook it with all her might. A round apple landed on her head, right on the top, and she fell backwards, momentarily stunned. A second fell into her lap, and several more full, juicy apples fell to the ground.

Sapphire grabbed the apple, hunger overwhelming the thought of Singe, who was probably equally hungry, as berries were not very filling. She bit into it, her heart pounding at the sweet crunch and eyes widening as the juice filled her mouth. She let out a quiet sigh of absolute bliss, taking another bite. The apple disappeared entirely with her third bite, but she felt oddly full. She let out a loud burp, and patted her stomach; she was not completely full, but the apple had definitely taken the edge off of her hunger.

She heaved herself to her feet, and attempted to gather the fallen apples. It proved to be hard word; her stubby arms were not suitable for holding the large apples, and they were slick against her scales, so she could not attempt to hold them against her sides. She let out a frustrated growl as she dropped one apple while attempting to pick up another, for the umpteenth time.

She heard a laugh behind her, and saw that Singe was watching.

"Come over here and help me," she growled; he hastened to obey. He seemed strangely cheerful, despite being in a strange place where no one seemed to quite understand the rules, surrounded by feral Pokemon trying to kill them.

"You saved some of those berries for us, I hope?"

Singe nodded quickly. "And left two still on the bush, of course."

Sapphire dropped the apples she'd managed to hold onto into Singe's bag. It dropped slightly from the weight, but not nearly as much as it should have, laden with so many items.

"More Palkia-space-stuff," Singe said, answering her questioning glance. "The bags are a lot bigger inside than out, but the gravity is different or something, so they don't seem to weigh as much."

Sapphire shrugged; none of this really seemed to make sense, and how a bag worked was the least of her problems.

"Well, we've got full bellies and plenty of berries; looks like we're ready to blow this popsicle stand," Singe said cheerily.

"You can do the honors," Sapphire said, and Singe strode towards the Flagstone, letting out an excited giggle as it sank under his weight. The grass wall in front of them gave way to a new path; quickly, Singe and Sapphire hurried into it, watching Floor 2 disappear behind them.

"Well, looks like we're onto Floor 3," Singe said. "Let's go!"

. . .

Floor 3 was almost exactly like Floor 2, except on this floor they found a Sleep seed (it appeared that the names of seeds was entirely self-explanatory) as well as a bush of Oran berries. Oran berries, however, seemed to be common, for the bush was positively full of the blue berries; it turned out to be lucky, when Singe had a nasty encounter with a rather fierce Pidgey.

"How long is this dungeon?" Sapphire asked as Singe gulped down the blue berry; his scales almost seemed to shine, and it was as if weeks were flashing before her eyes as the Pidgey's slash across Singe's stomach healed itself. Singe let out a relieved sigh, rubbing his stomach where the wound had been.

"Well, there are five big floors like this," he said, "and then the final floor, which is really just one room. It's where the boss is."

"So we've got to get to Floor 6?"

Singe laughed. "No. Jigglypuff said she thought Cookie was there, but I doubt it…it's a mother's worst nightmare, her kid making it to the very end of a dungeon; she probably just thought the worst. Cookie's probably on the next floor; I'm sure our badge will shine."

"It had better," Sapphire said, with a glance towards the sky. "It's almost sundown, our badge will teleport us away, right?"

Singe nodded. "It's set to get us out of here at sunset, right, but it'll give us a choice before it actually does it; the teleporting is really just a precaution for if we get lost. We've got as much time as we need."

"What if we faint?"

"The badge is synced to our life-force; if we're in danger of dying, it'll teleport us away."

Sapphire's eyes widened. "Dying? Like, as in, floating-in-heaven-with-the-angels-and-harps dying?"

"Harps are those stringy things, right? You use your fingers?" Singe asked curiously. "But what's an angel?"

Sapphire sighed quietly. "Never mind, Singe, just never mind." She waddled into the next hallway, Singe trotting along behind her.

"Flagstone in this room," Singe announced as they entered a new room; Sapphire glanced around, spotting the gray stone quickly.

"Items?" she asked, and Singe shook his head. Sapphire walked towards the Flagstone, stepping on it and hearing the familiar click. She and Singe rushed towards the new floor – Singe informed her that if they stayed too long after pushing a Flagstone, the grass would actually spring up around them – and entered Floor 4.

Sapphire smirked, feeling smug; they already had the hang of this whole operation, it seemed like. She turned towards Singe, expecting to see the same feeling on his face, but the Charmander seemed worried as he glanced down at the badge hanging on their bag.

"What is it?" Sapphire asked, cocking her head to one side. Singe shook himself.

"Nothing, let's go," he said quickly. Sapphire shrugged to herself, and waddled away.

. . .

"That was awesome!" Singe cheered, as Sapphire took down two Pidgeys at once, sending them both squawking and flying away. "Way to go, Sapphire! You're definitely getting stronger. I bet you'll be able to use Water Gun soon!"

"I squirt water out of my mouth then, right?" Sapphire asked, her voice practically a purr; she was already feeling much more powerful than she had in Dewdum. It was as though the mystery dungeon was her element; her heart seemed to beat rapidly while she was inside, the blood pounding in her ear (holes), every scale tingling with the excitement of battle even when there were no foes to face.

"You summon your inner water powers, yeah," Singe said. His face was split in a grin. "I bet you get the hang of it in no time. Why not try it now?"

"Okay," Sapphire said slowly, patting her belly as if there might be an inner pouch of water somewhere. Singe laughed.

"Unlike a Fire type, your element isn't actually inside of you," he said. "You Water types take the water in the air around you and condense it. You're stronger around real bodies of water, because you can draw from them, and you can even use the clouds above to help. Fire types do have the advantage of being able to use their powers everywhere except underwater, but the only thing that gives us a boost is extreme heat."

"So…how do I do it, then?" Sapphire asked.

"You've got to focus your energy, just like you would using Scratch. Only this time, you have to feel your energy building inside of you, building and building until you can feel it pulse. And then you kind of…pull it out of yourself, I guess, force it out, and it will appear as water. Or, that's how Fire types like myself use Ember…although I haven't been able to master it, ha…." Singe sweatdropped. "It's a lot harder to train against leaves and rocks and stuff, you don't get strong nearly as fast…but I wasn't strong enough to come in here by myself. Or brave enough, I guess. But with you…." He flushed.

Sapphire wasn't paying attention; she was trying to focus on the energy in her stomach.

_Focus, _she thought to herself. _Focus…feel it build in your stomach…building, building…yes, I think I feel something! _Her scales prickled with excitement. _Build…build…a little premature, but let's try to release!_

She opened her mouth ready to let the water burst forward. Instead, a massive burp shook her entire body, as the 'energy' she'd build inside of her burst forward, giving off a faint smell of apple. Embarrassed, she clamped her jaws shut as Singe laughed.

He stifled his giggles as he saw her expression. "Don't feel bad, Sapphire," he said, a chuckle still in his voice, "I nearly set Libby on fire when I tried using Ember the first time. She was foraging, and very, ah, not pleased…." He rubbed his side, where Sapphire could see three faint scars, roughly the width of a Glameow's claws.

"Come on, let's go," she growled, breaking into an awkward little trot.

"Another Flagstone," Singe announced as they entered the room. "An item over there, I'll go get it."

Sapphire smirked. "These dungeons are so small; they aren't as hard as I thought."

"Not all of them are that size," Singe said, returning with a seed clutched in his hand. "Palkia made bigger dungeons for the more dangerous ones, so they'd be satisfied with their confinements instead of trying to break out and continue their assault on the civilized Pokemon. Go on, push it."

Sapphire did so, and the two of them headed into the next floor. Singe stared at the badge, and paled as it didn't glitter.

"What's the matter?" Sapphire asked, frowning at him. "You look oddly gloomy. We're almost finished, right?"

"The badge didn't glow…Cookie really is on Floor 6," Singe whispered. Sapphire realized he was trembling.

"What's the matter with that? What's wrong?"

"Sapphire…every dungeon is ruled by a boss. This boss is the strongest feral Pokemon in the whole dungeon. They're dangerous, completely ruthless. They'll kill anything that gets in their way."

"So you're worried about Cookie? Because she's there with it?" Sapphire asked, a knot of anxiety forming in her stomach.

"Well, yes, of course I'm worried about that…but remember what I said from before, Sapphire? How the feral Pokemon are scared of us? Well, bosses aren't. They think we're trying to take their territory whenever we come in here…and they'll never give it up, not when they have every other feral Pokemon in the dungeon depending on them. You see, what sets bosses apart is that they'll fight to the death. Floating-in-heaven-with-the-angels-and-harps death."

**AN: Now, there are 30+ of you all reading this story, so a few reviews now and again would be appreciated! Thanks oodles to those that have, but those that haven't should be shamied.**


	8. Chapter 6: Shoot To Thrill

**C **_**h a p t e r **_**6**

"We have to fight a boss? Like, a big nasty feral creature?" Sapphire asked, feeling the blood seep out of her face; if she was a human, she'd be as white as a ghost. "Nuh uh, don't think so. Count me out. Fighting some horrible thing to the death was not on my list of things to do today! I vote we just wait until sunset and get the heck out of here!"

Singe's green eyes were clouded with worry. "We can't do that, Sapphire. Jigglypuff is counting on us, and Cookie is in danger! The boss could be hurting her right now."

"Or maybe she'll just bounce out of harm's way," Sapphire said. "Singe, this is my first full day as a Pokemon. I'm not ready to charge off into battle!"

"Sapphire, we've been taking down feral Pokemon all day. It'll be the same, okay? Just with something a lot bigger and meaner. We don't have to kill the boss; all we have to do is hurt it so it can't fight anymore. If we had an Electric type on our team, everything would be so much easier, we could just paralyze it…or a grass type could put it to sleep…."

"Well, Singe, guess what? We don't. All you can do is burn whatever monster is waiting for us, and I can Scratch them. I'm going to be a big fat help!" Sapphire realized that she was growling now, her white fangs glinting against her blue scales.

Singe's eyes narrowed. "Fine, Sapphire, stay here. I don't care. But I came to help Cookie, and that's what I'm going to do!" He turned to go.

"I'm the team leader! You can't leave!" Sapphire shouted. "You said I get to call the shots!"

"That's when I thought you were actually brave enough to make the right choice!" Singe yelled back. "But you aren't, clearly. So I'm leaving. You can find your own way home; I'm going to save Cookie!"

"I hope you get eaten!" Sapphire snarled, but Singe was already gone, disappearing down the hallway. Fuming, Sapphire crossed her arms and stared up resolutely at the sky.

_It won't be long now, _she thought, sitting down on the dusty earth with an irritated growl. _ Stupid fire-brain. Does he really think he can beat something so scary? Idiot. You can't go around helping every little mewling Pokemon that cries out for help! You can't beat up a feral Pokemon and then set it back in the grass as if you actually care about its safety. He's a hypocrite, a filthy hypocrite. Why couldn't someone else have found me, eh? Why not that Umbreon, Lune? Sure, his team name is stupid and my name doesn't start with an 'L', but I'd be a good addition to the team!_

She ground her sharp teeth together with frustration. _Good riddance! What did Singe do for me anyway? Drag me around town meeting freaks, then pull me into a dungeon to get myself killed, that's what he did._

_But he did give you a place to rest, _a quiet voice at the back of her mind whispered. _And he was just trying to help you._

_Yeah? Well, I don't need his help. And it wasn't even his house, anyway, it was some other team's house. It wasn't even really his to give. I could have just taken it. I don't owe him anything._

She glanced up at the sky again with impatience. _Hurry up and sink, sun, so the badge can get me home, _she thought crossly. Then, her eyes widened. _Oh God, the badge! Singe has it! Will it work on me if I'm not with him? I don't want to be stuck here!_

She rose to her feet quickly, scrambling down the hallway.

"Singe?" she called. "Singe?"

She could see blood in the next room, but it didn't appear to be his, as the trail led towards the grass. Letting out a growl of frustration, she raced into the nearest hallway. "Singe?"

She went around twice before realizing that she'd just made a loop. She turned down another hallway, sniffing the air for the slightly ashy smell of the little Charmander.

"Singe? God, where did you go?" Sapphire grumbled. "If I had a map, this would be a lot easier…I'm stumbling around blind." It frightened her to realize just how much she'd come to depend on the map, in the short time since Singe had remembered it.

Her heart began to sink. _What if he leaves without me, and decides that I'm just too much of a pain to get back? What if he leaves me here forever?_

_What if he's hurt?_

She shook herself. _No, I don't care about him being hurt. I'm just using him to get to be one of these legend team things, right? Then I can 'discuss' with the Legendary how to get home. To get my memories back, and my old life. Whether or not Singe gets hurt isn't part of the equation. My betrayal will hurt him either way…._

She shook herself again, swinging her broad nose from side to side to clear her head. _Forget about that, idiot, focus on getting out of here!_

"Singe?" she called as she entered the next room. "Singe—" She stopped as she spotted him, standing with his arms crossed next to a Flagstone. His eyes were narrowed as he watched her.

"Oh, hey," she said weakly. "Er, there you are. Listen…."

"Change your mind?" Singe asked. "Or were you looking for this?" He pointed to the twinkling badge. Sapphire's face heated; was she really that obvious?

"I waited to push the Flagstone, to make sure you didn't get stuck in the grass," Singe said. His voice was oddly quiet, and his gaze quickly dropped to his feet. He sighed, uncrossing his arms. "I'm not very good at being angry…Sapphire, I'm sorry. This is a lot for you to take in, and I know it's hard being in a Pokemon body; you're still even walking funny, let alone taking down feral Pokemon. I know I can't expect you to do dangerous things like risking your life, when you're not really even a Pokemon…you don't feel the way I do about them. We aren't really your friends yet. The rest of the Transformed were always really happy to volunteer, but you…well, I guess I shouldn't have assumed that you would be like them. I'm sorry." His green eyes rose slowly to blink at her. "If you don't want to be part of the team, that's okay, I get it. I guess Skylar was right, although we fell apart more quickly than even he would have guessed, ha…." He gave a weak, miserable little laugh. "The badge will teleport you back early if you forfeit the mission…which I guess we'll have to do….Don't worry about me, I'll find a way to get Cookie out by myself. Just go ahead and go home, Sapphire. I'll still help you to find out why you were turned into a human, even if we can't be on a team together." He plucked the badge from the bag, and held it out to her.

Sapphire hesitated; the pain in Singe's eyes was all too real, and she felt her heart clenching with sympathy, although she wasn't quite sure why.

_Was I like him, as a human? _She wondered, then sighed. _It doesn't matter. I want to meet the legends and find out who I am…but I can't risk my life for it, can I? Singe will find his own way out. _She forced herself to harden her heart; she had to look out for herself in this strange world. She couldn't worry about Singe.

She reached out, taking the badge from Singe; it was oddly warm in her hand. Singe's shoulders slumped, and he stepped gently on the Flagstone, giving her one last sad look, before steeling himself and heading down the long hallway that appeared in the thick grass.

Sapphire watched as he disappeared from sight, her scales prickling.

_Now or never, _she thought. _Since I haven't entered the new floor yet, this one isn't quite closed…but if I linger here too long, it'll close with me in it and I'll be stuck in the grass. How do I do this?_

She cupped the badge in her hands, blinking down at the shiny green and white surface. "Er, hey, little badge," she said, feeling awkward. It seemed to glisten more brightly as she spoke, and she thought it might have grown slightly warmer in her hands. "Well, badge, I feel really stupid, talking to you like this…but, uh, let's see…I want to go home."

_Abandon mission?_

Her eyes widened at the soft, almost feminine voice that entered her mind; it almost seemed to echo, and the badge seemed to hum in her hands. She realized that the badge was 'speaking' to her as Magnus had did.

She swallowed, hearing the grass rustle behind her, as if with impatience. Any moment now, this floor would disappear.

"Yes," she said. "Abandon miss—"

Her voice broke off, as a horrible cry split the air, a feral shriek of anger. Her eyes widened.

_The boss. Singe._

_Abandon mission? _The badge asked again.

Sapphire was frozen, staring down the hallway where Singe had disappeared. Then, she heard a second cry, this one of pain.

It sounded like the noise a Charmander might make.

She realized her palms were slippery with sweat, her heart pounding.

_Abandon mission? _The badge asked a third time, sounding almost annoyed. Sapphire ignored it, gripped with indecision. Singe could be dying, at that very moment, powerless against the mighty boss of Sunlit Meadow.

_I can't do it, _she realized, _I can't just let him get hurt like that, not trying to save Cookie._

"No, badge, don't cancel the mission," Sapphire growled. "I'm not finished yet."

She broke into a run, heading into the hallway of Floor 6. Behind her, the grass sprung up as Floor 5 disappeared; the sound seemed to echo in her ears, almost ominously.

She raced down the hallways as quickly as she could go, stumbling and nearly falling on the turn, but continuing to run. She stopped with shock as a massive room, the biggest she'd seen, opened in front of her. The ground was rocky and hard compared to the soft dust of the lower floors, and huge towering trees dotted the grass around it.

Another feral shriek burst forth, and Sapphire had to cover her ears at the noise. She spotted Singe, standing in front of a quivering pink ball; he had a horrible gash across his chest, from powerful claws.

But where was the boss? Sapphire couldn't see anything. Then, she realized that Singe's head was tilting to look up, and she did as well.

The Pokemon was larger than any Pidgey, with a brilliant red crest atop its head. Its sharp claws were bigger than that of a Pidgey's as well, and its tail was a mixture of red and gold. Its beady eyes gleamed with hatred and rage as it stared down at Singe. Sapphire swallowed, as she realized it was a Pidgeotto.

"Singe!" she screamed. Singe's head turned towards her quickly, and joy glowed in his emerald eyes.

"Sapphire! I knew you'd come back!" he cried.

The Pidgeotto, seeing that its hated foe was distracted, swooped downwards so quickly that Sapphire could not cry out a warning in time. It hit Singe with a powerful gust from its wings, sending him flying. Singe collapsed in a heap, struggling to stand.

Cookie was the bird's true target, however; it reached out for her with sharp claws, intending to squeeze the life out of her.

"Hey! Birdbrain!" Sapphire shouted; the bird's head whipped towards her, hovering over the trembling Igglybuff.

"I'm the one you want!" Sapphire snarled. "Come over here and get some, beak-face!"

The Pidgeotto let out an angry cry, and Sapphire's eyes widened as the bird suddenly streaked towards her. She was knocked to the ground from the powerful wind of its wings, and rolled several feet, bumping over the rocky terrain.

She rose to her feet as soon as she stopped rolling, grinning at the bird. "You've got to do better than that," she said. "I've been falling down and rolling ever since I got here. That isn't going to be enough, understand? Come on! Give me your best shot!"

Any fear or apprehension she'd felt before had completely vanished. Her heart was beating, adrenaline was pumping through her body, her blood roaring in her ears. She grinned, white fangs flashing brightly in the sunlight. "Bring it!"

The Pidgeotto swooped forward, slashed at her with its claws. She met them with her own, but was knocked backwards yet again, her feeble Scratch barely leaving a mark on the bird. She struggled to her feet again, letting out a gasp as pain flashed through her body; the Pidgeotto had succeeded in landing a gash on her side. She pressed one hand against it, feeling her blood seeping through her fingers.

_Well, this isn't good, _she managed to think, before the bird was on her again. This time, it didn't slash her and flee; it held her down with its feet, pinning her to the ground. She struggled, but could not raise either arm to Scratch her foe. The Pidgeotto peered down at her, triumph glittering in its dark eyes; she was at its mercy, and as a feral Pokemon, it had none.

Sapphire snarled up at it, refusing to show fear, waiting for the Pidgeotto to strike her. Its head rose, preparing for the peck that would end the fight.

There was a sudden flash of light, and the Pidgeotto let out a screech of pain as the smell of burnt feathers filled Sapphire's nose. The bird was thrown to the side, and Sapphire scrambled to her feet to see Singe staring at the bird, surprise on his face.

"I did it! I used Ember!" he exclaimed, elated despite the still-bleeding wound on his stomach.

"That was incredible," Sapphire said, still half-blinded from the bright flash of fire. Singe grinned at her, before tensing as the Pidgeotto stood; the boss was not so easily brought down.

Sapphire let out a hiss as the Pidgeotto glanced between the two of them, as if choosing which one to go after. Then, it fluttered its wings and shot forward, going between them in the blink of an eye. Stunned, Sapphire watched as the Pidgeotto streaked towards Cookie.

"No!" Singe shouted, and Sapphire watched, frozen, as the Charmander desperately threw himself forward, grabbing the Pidgeotto's leg. The Pidgeotto, surprised for only an instant, changed direction, flying up into the sky. Sapphire could only stare in horror as the Pidgeotto climbed higher and higher, Singe still clinging on to its leg. Then, with a powerful flap of its wings, the Pidgeotto created a massive Gust, which it aimed directly at the trembling Charmander. Singe, already weak from blood loss, couldn't hold on. Like an orange meteor, he fell, plummeting to the earth. The wind from Pidgeotto's Gust threw the cloud of dust created by Singe's fall into Sapphire's face, and she coughed, eyes streaming. Then, she raced forwards, running to the crater left by Singe's impact.

"Singe!" she cried, racing towards her fallen teammate. Singe was strangely still, eyes closed; only the puff of dirt that stirred up with each breath told her that he was alive. Sapphire moved to touch him, to place a hand on his shoulder and wake him up, but she froze as he saw that his flame was dangerously low, barely flickering on the end of his tail.

_I've got the badge, _she realized, _maybe it can't teleport him away, even though he's so close to…._

She moved to place the badge on him, only to see that it was gone; she must have dropped it in the fray, somewhere. She turned to see it glinting at her, near the hallway that she'd first entered. She started to move towards it, when the Pidgeotto above her let out a cry of triumph. She looked up, staring at the bird as it let out another wild cry, its wings pumping and claws gleaming red with blood, although hers or Singe's she wasn't sure.

Sudden anger flared up inside of Sapphire, anger like she had never felt before, as if her very blood was aflame. Her scales tingled, then burned as if they too had caught on fire. A feral snarl of her own tore its way from her throat, and her crimson eyes burned as she stared up at the Pidgeotto.

"You haven't won yet."

The Pidgeotto almost seemed to smile, and with a shriek it began to dive, streaking down in a blaze of red and gold towards her. Sapphire's eyes narrowed, the flames of anger licking her entire body.

_Focus my anger, _she thought, _focus right in the center…build it up now, let it come, let it flow, let me use it. _She could feel it them, a strange sort of feeling as if the liquid fire in her veins was collecting, pooling itself inside of her. She welcomed it, opening herself up to it as the anger flooded her, becoming everything she could see, could hear, could smell, could feel, could _taste. _And just as the Pidgeotto came down, just as it was about to strike her, she opened her mouth and let everything burst forth.

A torrent of water tore itself from her mouth, slamming right into the Pidgeotto's face. The speed it had gained during its dive allowed it to stand up to the torrent for a moment, its beak nearly touching Sapphire's face, before the force of the water threw it back, threw it into the sky. The Pidgeotto tried to catch itself, tried to regain control, but its feathers were sodden and clumped together as it fell out of the sky. It hit the ground, and the entire earth seemed to shake beneath Sapphire's feet. She advanced on the bird, a fierce growl still coming out of her mouth. The Pidgeotto, already burned from Singe's Ember, had been no match for her Water Gun and its fight with gravity. It tried to rise, but fell again; one wing was obviously broken, and one of its legs was badly twisted. It was unable to fly and unable to flee; this time it was at Sapphire's mercy, and the anger governing her would not let her allow the bird to get away.

She could feel her power building again, the anger and pain already readying her body for another blast. She grinned at the Pidgeotto, which stared up at her with hatred and absolute fear in its black eyes.

"You're not the boss of Sunlit Meadow anymore," Sapphire grinned, her huge teeth almost glowing. The Pidgeotto made a quiet sound – not a shriek, nor a cry, but almost a churring sort of noise – as Sapphire readied herself to let her power loose once more.

"Sapphire," she heard a voice whisper weakly behind her. "Don't."

She closed her mouth quickly, swallowing the energy back, where it clenched in her stomach painfully, like a ball of molten lava. She turned, eyes widening as she saw Singe had managed to lift his head, watching her through green eyes clouded by pain.

"Mercy…is what separates us from the ferals," he croaked. "We've got to get Cookie home. Don't make her see…." His voice broke off and his head hit the ground as he lost his remaining energy. The energy was still building inside of Sapphire, screaming for release, and she slowly turned towards the Pidgeotto. It made the sound again – a defiant sound, she realized – as it prepared itself for death.

Sapphire tilted her head back, opening her mouth and letting the water burst from her jaws, shooting into the sky where it fell to the ground like rain. The anger was beginning to cool as she looked away from the Pidgeotto, the water splashing against her scales and chilling her from the outside as well as the inside.

"Hang on, Singe." She raced towards Singe's bag, which was lying, forgotten, in the corner of the room. She quickly grabbed three Oran berries, staggering back towards Singe as quickly as she could. She ripped one in half with her hands, drabbling the juice over his visible wounds, before putting the other two in his mouth. He was still conscious, as he chewed slowly, then swallowed. Sapphire watched anxiously, as his green eyes slowly opened to stare at her.

Then, his scales seemed to shimmer as the wound on his stomach began to close itself, scabbing over and healing as though by magic. A slight smile curled Singe's face and he sat up slowly, bracing his hands against the ground.

"Are you okay?" Sapphire asked, hovering beside him. "Do you need another one?"

"Three is more than enough, I think," Singe said slowly, staring down at his stomach as the scab began to shrink. "You need one too, your side…."

Sapphire realized that her side was still bleeding; the mystery dungeon's accelerated healing still hadn't managed to stop the deep wound from bleeding. She suddenly felt light-headed, and stumbled as she tried to get back to the bag, falling to the ground.

"You exhausted yourself from those Water Guns," Singe said, getting to his feet slowly. "That Ember about did me in too." He picked up the bag, slinging it over one shoulder and pulling out another Oran berry. This time, it was he who tended to her wound, dribbling some of the juice over it before giving it to her to eat. She let out a quiet sigh as the berry slid down her throat, already working its magic as energy seeped into her limbs. She rose to her feet as well.

Singe was staring at the fallen Pidgeotto. Then, he turned, and smiled at Cookie, who was still trembling and staring at them with wide ruby-red eyes.

"It's okay, Cookie," Singe said warmly, motioning her forward. "Your mother send us to get you."

"Mommy sent you?" Cookie asked; her voice was high-pitched and squeaky. Singe nodded.

"Jigglypuff sent us to find you, that's right." Singe still had his hand over his stomach, as if it still pained him; Sapphire realized from the dull ache in her side that her Oran berry hadn't completely taken her pain away either.

"Come on, let's go home," Singe said. "Where's the badge?"

Sapphire pointed to where the fallen badge laid, and Singe guided Cookie over to it.

"What are we going to do with that?" Sapphire asked, pointing towards the fallen bird.

"The dungeon will heal it like it does us," Singe said. "It will take awhile, but it will recover. Few Pokemon will dare challenge it here anyway." He picked up the badge.

_Mission complete! Return home with quarry? _The badge asked. Singed towards Sapphire, and she nodded.

"Yes, badge," Singe ordered. "Send us home."

The badge twinkled, and Sapphire's world dissolved into white light.

. . .

"Cookie? Oh, Cookie!"

Jigglypuff's cries made Sapphire open her eyes, although she couldn't remember closing them. The brightness of the world stunned her for a moment, and she blinked, seeing spots.

"Oh, thank you so much!" the Jigglypuff exclaimed, and Sapphire glanced towards her. She was clutching Cookie in her stubby arms, rubbing her face against Cookie's cheek.

"You're welcome, ma'am," Singe said warmly. "It was nothing." He glanced at Sapphire, amusement glowing in his green eyes. She found herself smiling back.

"No, really, I can never thank you enough for bringing my daughter home," Jigglypuff gushed, pulling a bag of coins seemingly from nowhere. "Here, a reward. One thousand coins. I'm only sorry it's all I can offer."

Singe's eyes widened as he took the heavy bag. "O-one thousand coins?" he stammered. "No, Jigglypuff, that's too much!"

"My name's Creampuff," the Jigglypuff said, "and believe me, I wish I could offer more for returning my daughter to me."

Singe was grinning from ear to ear. "Then thank you, Creampuff, thank you very much." He looked down at Cookie. "Be good, and don't bounce away from your mommy again, okay?"

Cookie gave him a tiny nod, but she still looked faintly frightened as Creampuff took her hand and led her away, into heading back up the hill to Dewdum. Singe turned to Sapphire with a smile.

"I knew you'd come," he said. Sapphire shrugged, embarrassed.

"You were right, fighting the boss was the only thing we could do," she said, flustered. Singe took her hand, and squeezed it.

"I really appreciate it, Sapphire…you still want to be on the team, right? You're okay with that? I don't want to force you into anything."

Sapphire stared into his green eyes, and then swallowed. "Yes, Singe. I still want to be on our team."

Singe was grinned again. "Alright, Sapphire! Team Savage, forever together!"

Sapphire stared at him. "What are you doing?"

Singe blushed. "I thought that could be, you know, our team motto."

Sapphire shook her head, sighing. Singe pouted. "I thought it sounded like a cool idea…."

**AN: Me, being foolish and naïve, named my first Jigglypuff "Creampuff". I was young, okay? D:**

**Thanks for the reviews, loves, I appreciate them. I assure you, we will find out ALL about the mysterious stuff! Eventually.**

**To answer a question (which I partially answered in story, I guess) the ferals do heal fast in the dungeons, and they need to eat more, but it evens out because of how fast the mystery dungeon produces food; plants grow quickly too, so more food for the Rattatas, which means more for the Pidgeys, etc. Dungeon-changing is pretty common, but it only affects those on each floor; normally the mystery dungeon is just a bunch of grass, it only splits into rooms when strange Pokemon enter.**


	9. Chapter 7: No Time To Kill

**C **_**h a p t e r **_**7**

Libby's eyes seemed to positively glow as Singe and Sapphire returned, lugging their load of coins.

"Well hello," she purred, stretching the word out into 'helllllo,' "how are you two today?"

"A little woozy, but good," Singe grinned. "We'd like to deposit these in our account, Libby, all one thousand of them."

Libby's tail seemed to tighten its coils; Sapphire assumed it was a sign of excitement. "But of course, Singe, darling," she purred, springing up to grab the bag in her teeth and pull it away.

"Oh! And we've got some items to put away, too," Singe said, placing several Chesto berries, Pecha berries, and two apples on the shop counter. The Glameow nodded, grabbing them with her paws and dragging everything into the back.

Luke leaned on his counter, watching them. "You two look pretty banged up," he observed. "That wound on your stomach will scar, you know."

Singe looked down, touching the still-healing scab gently. "Yeah, I know…but I don't mind. It'll make me look tougher. And guess what gave it to us?"

Luke smiled. "What?"

"The boss of Sunlit Meadow!" Singe crowed.

"A Pidgeotto," Sapphire added quickly. Luke's eyebrows rose.

"That must have been a serious mission then, huh, despite the rating?" he asked. "Good job, you two. You didn't kill it, did you?"

Singe glanced at Sapphire, who clenched her jaw. "No," Singe answered, "we figured we'd let it heal."

Luke nodded slowly. "Good. Sometimes, it seems that mercy is all that separates us from the ferals…our aura is the same, you know. Give me two Charmanders that I don't know, one feral and one civilized, and I'd never be able to tell them apart. At the core, we're all the same." His crimson eyes seemed to mist over, before he blinked and glanced down at their badge. "Still Normal rank, though. A pity."

Sapphire blinked at him. "Why?"

"You can't recruit Pokemon yet," Luke explained. "You can only start recruiting them when you become Bronze Rank."

Sapphire rolled her eyes; like it mattered, anyway. She didn't want any of these crazies on her team, and she didn't know if she and Singe would ever travel to another town.

"Bronze rank is…fifty points, right?" Singe asked Luke, who nodded. "Well, I'm sure this one got us lots of points, since we fought the boss…so we can't be too far away."

"And, you've already defeated the boss, so when you are Bronze rank you can recruit," Luke pointed out. "Feral Pokemon will already be impressed with your strength."

Sapphire blinked. "Wait, hang on, we can recruit feral Pokemon?"

Singe nodded. "Sometimes if you're in a dungeon and have already beaten the boss, the feral Pokemon will recognize your strength and want to join your team," he replied. "It's very hard to do, and even then they aren't ready to be on your team for missions…you have to civilize them, or else you might find your teammates eating the Pokemon you're trying to rescue!"

"So when we're Bronze rank, we can recruit Pokemon from Sunlit Meadow? Pidgeys and Rattatas? Can we recruit the boss?"

Singe shrugged. "It's really rare, but it's possible to recruit the boss, if you know what you're doing."

Sapphire smiled to herself. The sheer power of the Pidgeotto, at her beck and call…that would be useful.

Libby reappeared, sitting on her counter and giving Singe a silky purr. "Everything's taken care of, darling. Bring me back more treasure, now, won't you?"

Singe smiled at her, and nodded to Luke. "I guess we'll be seeing you two," he said cheerily, before walking away. Sapphire waddled after him, blinking as he led them to Skylar's shop.

"We aren't doing another mission so soon, are we?" she whispered to him, but he shook his head.

"Nah, we'll need to rest a bit. I just want to get our points recorded," Singe whispered back.

Skylar appeared to have a set of matches in his hand when they approached the shop. He was striking them against the counter, swearing to himself when they fizzled out.

"Magmar-brand matches are the worst," he grumbled, "but I don't have enough money…oh, hey!" He swept the matches behind his back as he saw the two of them, smiling guiltily. Singe and Sapphire exchanged glances, before Singe placed their badge on the counter.

"We completed our mission," Singe said. Skylar nodded, then blinked.

"Oh no, I dropped something," he said in a voice of dull surprise, and quickly bent over. When he came back up, his matches had disappeared. He took the badge, and walked to the back of the shop, there was a strange machine in the back corner. He placed the badge facedown, and there was a bright flash of light.  
"Mission completed," a tinny voice said. "Mission rank: E. Items gained: twelve. Items lost: four. Feral Pokemon defeated: eleven. Bosses defeated: one. Quarries found: one. Total points earned: five."

Singe's face, which had been glowing from the coolness of the machine, plummeted. "Five points? What?"

Skylar quirked an eyebrow at them. "Yeah, five points. It was an E-rank mission, that's all they give."

"But, but…we fought a boss! And won!" Singe sputtered. "Shouldn't it be worth more?"

"D-rank missions are worth ten," Skylar said.

"Then ours was a D-rank; it was much harder than we thought it would be," Sapphire growled. Skylar smirked.

"Well, Normal-ranked teams aren't allowed on D-rank missions…so I guess if it was D-rank, you don't get anything for it, including the reward."

Singe paled. "D-rank mission?" he asked, turning to Sapphire. "I don't think it was quite that, do you?"

"Er, no," Sapphire said quickly. "It was easy. Easy as cake. Easy as squishing a Pecha berry. Definitely an E-rank mission."

Skylar smiled. "Good. Glad we got that sorted out." He took the badge out of the machine, handing it to them. There was now a small symbol shining on the thin band between the white and pink halves; looking closer, Sapphire realized that it was a number.

"Five," she said. Skylar nodded.

"Every time the machine reads your badge, it gives you your total point balance on the badge, so you don't have to keep checking," he said. "You don't have to verify your completed missions every time, if you don't want to. You can store them up in the badge and verify them all at once instead. But, be warned; if you've stored a lot of missions in the badge and then lose it, all of your missions are lost and you don't get any of the points."

"Thanks, Skylar," Singe said, putting the badge on their bag; he still looked a little glum. "Let's look at the mission board again, Sapphire."

She waddled with him over to the board, noting the flood of new missions on both sides. "Things must be getting intense here," she said, and he nodded.

"Things are getting worse and worse, but that's just how it is when a Transformed appears," he said. "The Legendary are getting antsy about something; the Legend League will probably call the legend teams to meet with them again sooner than expected."

Sapphire grunted. "Stinks that we only get five points for each mission…we've got nine to go before we're Bronze rank, then."

Singe nodded. "You have to be Gold rank just to apply to become a Legend team."

"How many points is that, then?"

"Fifteen hundred."

Sapphire's eyes widened. "Fifteen hundred? That's like…like…." She quickly counted on her fingers. "That's three hundred missions!"

"Two hundred and ninety-nine, now," Singe said mildly. "But yeah, it's a lot…it has to be, or anyone could be a legend team. Still, it'll be easier when we get to do the higher-ranked missions, since they're worth more." He smiled. "We can do it, Sapphire. I'm certain of it. Now, let's look at these…." He peered at the several pink-papered missions on the board. "Oh, this one should be easy. This one just wants a Chesto berry; she's too scared to go into the dungeon, so she's waiting just outside it. We can just give her one of ours for an easy five points…and this one wants us to find a lost item of hers, a "special" apple. She lost it on the third floor, when a Pidgey took it from her…we can do those, right?"

Sapphire frowned. Somehow, the fact that delivering an item without having to step foot in a dungeon, and defeating a boss were worth the same amount of points just didn't make sense.

"Yeah, we can do those. Tomorrow, though, okay?" She yawned and stretched. "My arms are about to fall off."

Singe nodded quickly. "By tomorrow, Zee will have reset, so we might even be able to buy some cool stuff from him," he said, and started walking down the street, with Sapphire following.

. . .

By the time they returned to her new home, Sapphire was about ready to collapse. She didn't even try to swim a lap around the pool, preferring to simply spring onto the rock. Singe gave a little wave that Sapphire didn't return, as she closed the old, broken door and flopped down onto her lumpy bed.

_Today was…interesting, _she thought wearily. _I met the lunatics of Dewdum…went into my first dungeon…beat my first boss…completed my first mission….But things are so strange here, and there's so many things I don't understand about Pokemon culture at all. Why did I go back and help Singe? I mean…I guess it was in my best interests in the long run, to do so…he's the only ally I have here, the only one who can help me figure out why I'm a Pokemon at all. But at the same time…it was more than that. I could have been killed, very easily…but I still came back to help him._

_I already feel close to him, connected. Maybe it's a Pokemon thing? Their lives are so harsh, they need to form close bonds quickly just to survive….Maybe that's it, then? I'm certain that if I was a human, I would never have done such a thing._

She sighed. _It's troubling, when you don't understand your own body…your own impulses…and yet, it is almost invigorating, too. When I was in that dungeon…I think it was the first time since I came here that I really felt at home. The dungeon was where I belonged, I could feel it. Is that why I was chosen to be one of the Transformed?_

She ground her teeth together with frustration at the questions she couldn't answer. Then, she yawned, stretching out on the bed and curling into almost a ball. _I need to rest up for tomorrow, _she thought drowsily, before sleep stole her away.

. . .

_She opened her eyes slowly, blinking; where was she? For a moment, all she could see was darkness; then, slowly, her eyes picked out the small white dots of light scattered all around her._

What are they? _She wondered_. Am I in a cave? Underground? In space? What is this?

_Then, suddenly, there was a dazzling flash of light, brighter even than Singe's Ember. She shielded her eyes from the flash, her mouth opening into a scream that did not reach her ears. When she opened her eyes, it was as if a bright white streak had been painted in front of her, a throbbing trail of light. She felt her heart leap, pounding in her chest as if she was in a dungeon, and her mouth moved to form a word, almost a question-_

_Another force suddenly pulled at her, pulling her into a different, nonsensical dream that she would not remember when she awoke._

. . .

Sapphire's eyes snapped open, and she stared at the ceiling, realizing that she was panting. She struggled to sit up, rubbing the back of her head, still dazed by the strange dream.

_What was that? _She wondered. _Where was I? What was that streak of light? It was…dazzling, amazing, I felt as though…._She shook her head, bewildered. She climbed out of the bed, letting out a sigh as her feet touched the solid ground of her home.

_Just forget about it, _she thought. _Your brain is just scrambled, trying to make sense of you being a Pokemon, and all. At least my body seems to recognize that my legs aren't so long, anymore…maybe I'll be able to walk normally today._

She stepped outside, blinking, but Singe wasn't there. She sprang into the pool, doing a quick lap around it and rejoicing in the coolness of the water against her scales. When she completed her lap, she looked up to find Singe sitting on a boulder, staring down at her. Using her tail, she propelled herself upwards, landing beside him in a spray of droplets.

Singe yelped, grabbing his tail and shielding it from her water.

"Sorry," Sapphire said, stepping a few feet away to shake the rest of the water from her shining scales.

"It's fine, Sapphire," Singe said brightly. "I figured we'd get started on those missions today, what do you think? I took the liberty of withdrawing a bit more money, so we can buy some stuff from Zee's shop."

Sapphire rolled her eyes. "So long as he doesn't flip out on us, that sounds good."

Singe grinned, and the two of them headed into the forest. Sapphire grew apprehensive as they started down the slope, but it appeared that today she had control over her body, mostly. She reached the bottom without having even stumbled, much to her pleasure.

_Getting stronger every day, _she observed wryly. _Who knows, maybe in a few years I'll be able to actually _run_ down that slope!_

"Hello Sapphire, Singe," a smooth voice said, making Sapphire turn. She blinked, seeing the Umbreon Lune smirking at the two of them. She felt her face heat up, and Singe let out a quiet growl.

"Hey, Lune," Singe said, a warning tone underlying his voice. Lune appeared undisturbed.

"My my, Sapphire, it looks like you had quite a battle yesterday," Lune said slowly, bending down to scrutinize her side; his nose almost touched her scales, and they prickled uncomfortably. "Weren't you in Sunlit Meadow? Rumor has it that you managed to fight a boss."

Sapphire nodded. "Yeah. We beat him, and saved an Igglybuff named Cookie," she said, trying to sound bored, as though they both hadn't almost died. Lune's dark eyebrows rose slightly.

"Impressive," he said. "My team defeated the boss of Sunlit Meadow as well, as I recall."

"And then the boss mysteriously 'disappeared', right after you left the dungeon," Singe hissed. "And mysteriously a new boss, the one we fought, came to replace it!"

_Is Singe saying that Lune's team killed the old boss? _Sapphire thought with surprise. _I thought the civilized Pokemon were against that…?_

"Are you accusing us of something?" Lune asked calmly. "The rest of my team is waiting for me, if you are…." There was no denying the threat underneath his words. Singe swallowed, looking unnerved.

"Why is your team here?" Sapphire asked, remembering seeing Lune coming the same way yesterday as well.

"We're completing another mission at Sundown Cave," Lune said. "Since we're nearly Silver rank now, that's where we do most of our work."

"Sundown Cave?" Sapphire echoed, and Lune nodded.

"A very beautiful place, were it not for the feral scum living there," he answered. "Perhaps I could show you around sometime? As its name suggests, it is most beautiful at sunset."

Sapphire flushed under her scales, only to feel Singe tug on her hand. "Come on, we need to get to Zee's before everything good today is gone," Singe said. Sapphire allowed herself to be led away, but when she glanced over her shoulder she saw that Lune was still watching her with his ruby-red eyes.

"You really don't like him," Sapphire observed, as they entered Dewdum.

"He's a total creep!" Singe exclaimed, his high-pitched voice almost squeaking. "You heard the way he talked about ferals. The way he thinks, it's our 'duty' to 'take care of' all the ferals, so the mystery dungeons are all ours."

Sapphire shivered at the memory of Pidgeotto. "Maybe he's not so wrong."

Singe frowned at her. "Sapphire, a little compassion would be nice. The ferals didn't ask to be dragged over here, remember? They were a mistake, stolen from their families."

"That was eons ago!" Sapphire protested. "It hardly matters."

"Think of how you feel, away from your family and home," Singe said quietly. "You can't even remember them…but the ferals could. They remembered everything that they'd lost; family, friends, their childhood haunts…everything. And then they were cooped into tiny habitats called mystery dungeons, where all they could do was fight each other over every scrap of food, feeding the terrible hunger that being in dungeons produces. You should feel some empathy for them, Sapphire."

Sapphire was silent as the full force of Singe's words hit her. _I'm angry because someone took everything from me…but I can't even remember what he or she took, _she realized. _What would it be like, to actually know and remember everything someone else took from you?_

"Zee," Singe said quietly, and the Porygon-Z appeared in his shop. He peered at the Charmander, emitting the same whirring as before. Sapphire waited anxiously, hoping that Zee really did reset himself.

"CUSTOMER IS…SINGE!" Zee boomed. "SINGE! MOST VALUED OF ALL MY VALUED CUSTOMERS! I VALUE YOU THE MOST!"

Singe smiled at Sapphire, who nodded quickly. "Good morning, Zee. Sapphire and I were wanting to buy—"

Sapphire stiffened as Zee turned towards her, the whirring starting up again. "ANALYZING CUSTOMER….UNKNOWN CUSTOMER DETECTED. SPECIES IS…TOTODILE. TWO TOTODILE RECORDED IN DATABASE. RUNNING THROUGH DATABASE…." He let out a shrill beep. "CUSTOMER NOT DETECTED IN DATABASE! CUSTOMER IS UNKNOWN!"

Sapphire moved towards Singe, almost frightened, but he put a steadying hand on her shoulder. "Zee, this is Sapphire. Sa-fi-er," he said, enunciating clearly.

"SAPPHIRE," Zee beeped. "HEIGHT: TWO FEET ONE INCH. WEIGHT: APPROXIMATELY TWENTY SEVEN POUNDS. NOTE: CUSTOMER IS HEAVIER THAN AVERAGE TOTODILE. SALES OF FOODSTUFFS IS PROBABLE."

"Hey!" Sapphire growled indignantly. "I'm not heavy!"

Zee ignored her. "CUSTOMER 'SAPPHIRE' RECORDED IN DATABASE. PROCEED WITH SALES."

"Zee, we just want to look at your wares really quick," Singe plowed ahead before Zee could make a selection for them. "Okay?"

"MY WARES," Zee beeped. "CURRENT WARES ARE ORAN BERRES (TWO), CHERI BERRY (ONE), BLUE GUMMI (ONE), TM FLAMETHROWER (ONE), REVIVER SEED (ONE), STUN SEED (ONE), BIG APPLE (ONE). WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO SELECT TODAY, MOST VALUED CUSTOMERS?"

Sapphire glanced at Singe. "What's a Gummi? And a Reviver seed?" she whispered.

"Gummis help tame ferals," Singe whispered back, "so we won't need one of those for awhile. Reviver seeds revive you to full health if you faint; they're very useful, but we won't need one until we're Bronze rank, now that you can use Water Gun and I can use Ember."

"So do we need anything?"

"Not really…but a Cheri berry would be good, and I don't want him mad at us," Singe murmured back. "Okay, Zee, we'd like the Cheri berry, if you please!"

Zee flashed a blue light from his stomach; Sapphire could have sworn he looked pleased. "FIFTEEN COINS, AND THE CHERI BERRY IS YOURS!" he boomed. Singe dug around in the item bag, emerging with the pouch of coins in his hands. He carefully counted out fifteen, placing them on the counter. Zee retrieved the berry, and scooped up the coins with one of his stubby arms. "SOLD!" he shouted, pink and blue lights flashing. Sapphire looked away, afraid that she might have a seizure from the wildly pulsating lights.

"Thanks, Zee," Singe said brightly.

"YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE—" Zee started to say, but Singe had already grabbed Sapphire's hand and tugged her away from the shop.

"Now, after we've completed our missions real quickly, we'll take another walk around Dewdum," Singe decided. "There' s still some people I need you to meet."

Sapphire groaned. "So, team leader really is an empty title, huh?"

Singe grinned in reply, then blinked and glanced around. "That's weird, there's no one here," he said slowly. Sapphire blinked, realizing that he was right; there were no other Pokemon wandering around as there had been before, or peeking out of windows. Everyone was gone.

Her scales crawled uncomfortably, and she blinked at Singe nervously. Singe looked puzzled, then smiled.

"I bet I know what's up. Come on, to the Plaza," he said, and broke into a jog. Sapphire followed him into a wide, open space that she realized was in the center of town. In the center, the stones were arranged in a strange pattern, although she guessed she couldn't see what it was unless she was in the sky.

There was a raised platform that appeared to be made out of boxes in the center of the Plaza. Atop it was what looked to be a small blue-black penguin.

_Prinplup? _She wondered, but the coloration was wrong. Atop the little penguin's head were magnificent gleaming horns, and there was a slight shimmer to his wings.

_Empoleon, _she realized. _But…I remember them being tall, like five or six feet. This one…he's barely taller than I am, maybe six inches._

"That's an Empoleon, right?" she whispered to Singe. "I'm not crazy?"

Singe nodded, stopping behind the gathering crowd. "Yeah. His name is Napoleon."

"He's so sh—" Singe clapped his hand over her mouth.

"Don't say the s-word!" Singe whispered. "He's very very _very _sensitive about his size!"

"Get your hand off of me," Sapphire growled, her voice muffled. Single flushed, removing it quickly.

"Just act like you're listening," he murmured.

"Isn't he in charge? He looks like he's in charge."

"We just let him think that. Government is another human thing. I mean, some groups have pack leaders and stuff like that…but he thinks he's an emperor."

"Emperor of Dewdum," Sapphire giggled. "I think I'd rather be a pack leader."

"My subjects!" Napoleon shouted loudly, raising his stubby flippers in what she assumed he thought was a noble pose; she had to hold back a giggle. Singe glanced at her sternly. "Today, we meet to discuss taxes. Unfortunately, Libby here has told me that we are not collecting enough of them to pay our dear friend Lacey, who keeps the dewdrops frozen." He gestured towards the Glaceon that Sapphire had been before; she gave him a frosty smile. "So, taxes are going up fix percent to make up for it!" Napoleon announced, waving his arms wildly in what he probably thought was an inspirational way. "So that Dewdum can keep its proud name! And dewdrops!"

"Groan," Singe whispered, and Sapphire blinked with confusion as the crowd sighed, groaned, and complained about the taxes. Napoleon waved their complaints away.

"Stand strong, Dewdum! Together, we can overcome any threat! And taxes!" he said, putting his fins on his hips and staring dramatically into the distance. He posed for a moment, then bowed. "That is all, my loyal subjects. Emperor out! Peace!"

He sprang down from the boxes, and wandered away. Singe quickly let out a loud cheer, and the town followed him, a smattering of clapping making its way through the crowd. Napoleon paused, bowed, then disappeared down the street.

"Well, he should be happy for awhile," Singe said. Sapphire frowned at him.

"I thought you said you didn't have a government," she said.

Singe nodded. "We don't; like I said, we just pretend. Libby really does control our finances, and sometimes she tells him if we're doing well or badly. But we don't have taxes."

"So how do you keep everything so…spiffy?"

Singe shrugged. "Sometimes a little bit of money is taken from missions, but only the really high-ranked ones, because if you've got a high rank then you don't really need the money, right? The rest comes from donations; everyone gives what we can. And, really, there isn't a lot that needs to be kept up here. Lacey doesn't need to be paid to freeze the dew, she does it because she wants to. We're a small down, so we don't have fancy roads, or anything. Everything we need, we can just get from the shops, and shopkeepers are responsible for keeping up their own shops. We don't really need taxes here, there's nothing to pay for."

"But what about the big cities? Don't you have those? Don't you have to keep them up?"

Singe nodded. "Sure, we have bigger cities. And they do have expenses, and maybe there they have taxes, I dunno. But we don't need 'em here, they just make Napoleon feel like he actually does something. And we play along."

"…Right," Sapphire said, deciding not to argue. "Are we going to do those missions now?"

"First, we need to see the Elder," Singe said. "That's what I wanted to see, before we got side-tracked. He's a little out of the way, though, so we should hurry if we want to do the missions today."

He began running off, and Sapphire shook her head wearily; it seemed like all she ever did was trail after him.

_Once I get this all straightened out, I'll be calling the shots, _she thought firmly. _I'll be the one leading us places._

**AN: I don't care what no one says, Umbreons gots eyebrows! D:**

**And…Pokemanz are communists. .**


	10. Chapter 8: All The Small Things

**AN: Oh dear, it's been awhile. I'm sorry, I've been really busy this past…month. Yeah. xD**

**LegendShipping? Awesome name! Sapphy might bite off your face for suggesting it, though.**

**Don't worry, CrystalSakura, we'll get well in to the entire feral Pokemanz mess here in awhile. It might be a long, long long while, but we'll get there!**

**C **_**h a p t e r **_**8**

Sapphire following him wearily, wondering who the Elder of this village was. Some sort of old, wise Pokemon, surely. Another Alakazam? Maybe Magnus doubled as both the village's creepy old guy _and _the Elder.

_Probably a Psychic Pokemon,_ she thought, _they're full of old-people wisdom and stuff like that._

To her surprise, she realized they were heading out of little Dewdum entirely. Singe was headed for an old, dusty road that climbed up another small slope into the forest. Rolling her eyes, she followed him.

_He must live up here, _she thought as they walked up the slope; it was a rather sharp incline, and her legs soon began to burn. _I can't see some old geezer trying to hike up here every day._

The sound of rushing water reached her ears, and she frowned; perhaps it was a Slowking, both Psychic and Water type?

Then, as the pair of them made their way through the trees, her eyes widened with disbelief.

Before the two of them was an enormous waterfall, which pounded the rocks below with incredible force before splashing into a large pond, so large it was almost a lake. The waterfall itself came from farther up the slope, which was really more of a hill, where it was rockier. The pond and waterfall both seemed to sparkle, as if they had been purified by Suicune; even the grass around the pool seemed greener than the average grass. But that was not the most incredible thing. A Gyarados, with sparkling ruby scales, was lying underneath the waterfall, his lower jaw resting on a large boulder. He was fast asleep. But even all that was not the most incredible, amazing thing of all; the Gyarados's jaw was actually completely closed.

"Whoa," she whispered, taken aback. "I didn't even _know _they could actually close their mouths. Aren't they, like, always open?"

"It's a survival technique," he whispered to her. "See, most of a Gyarados's body is covered in those crazy-hard scales. So to a normal Pokemon, it seems like the inside would be the softest part; the weak point. Gyarados keep their mouths open all the time; it looks like they're advertising their immense strength, because it looks like their daring their opponent to attack their weak spot. But most Pokemon don't know that the inside of a Gyarados is as tough as the outside."

"So it's a trick? They're pretending they're bluffing?" Sapphire asked, getting her mind around it. "Weird. But, then…where is their real weak spot?"

He nodded towards the sleeping Elder's mouth. "See those whiskers?"

She blinked with surprise. "Those are the weak spot? He's drawing attention to his mouth, where his whiskers are…but no one thinks about them?"

Singe's green eyes glinted. "Pretty solid strategy then, huh? Come on, we need to talk to him. He's like crazy-old. He remembers Lance."

"Lance?" she frowned; the name sounded familiar. "He was…a Pokemon trainer or something, right?"

He nodded. "A long time ago, a bunch of dumb humans did something to his lake. It caused him to evolve into a Gyarados, and boy was he angry when that happened! Lance and some other trainer defeated the other humans, but they had to knock him out or he would have destroyed the whole town. He slept after his defeat, for years and years and years. Because of the lake's properties, he's lived a long time."

She blinked slowly. "But Lance…he was alive like two thousand years ago!"

Singe nodded. "He kind of overslept, I guess." He gave her a grin, before trotting up towards the pond, heading for the waterfall. Sapphire blinked, seeing his tail-flame flickering; wasn't it dangerous for him to go so close to the waterfall?

"Singe!" she exclaimed. "Be careful!"

He shot her a grin over his shoulder, and said something, but she couldn't hear it. Without fear, the little Charmander hopped onto the boulder upon which the Gyarados's massive jaw rested; approaching cautiously, Sapphire realized the ruby-red creature was even bigger than she'd realized.

_Well, he had two thousand years to grow! _She thought. _Two thousand flipping years! What's up with this town, honestly? And how the heck did he end up here?_

Singe tapped the crest on the Elder's head with one hand; he shouted something, but Sapphire couldn't hear it over the roar of the waterfall. He tapped the Elder again, but the great creature still did not move.

Sapphire's eyes widened as the Charmander, balancing precariously on the boulder, gently wrapped his hand around the Gyarados's whisker. He gave it a tiny tug.

Instantly, the crimson eyes opened, and the Gyarados let out a frightening roar that made the waterfall sound like nothing more than a gentle splash. Singe was thrown backwards by the force of the sound, nearly falling into the lake. Sapphire quickly grabbed him, her hands cupped around his armpits, pulling him back. She let out a growl, ready to attack, but as the Gyarados's head slowly rose and his true size and power became apparent, her growl became little more than a squeak of fear.

"Thanks," Singe said, and she quickly let him go. He cupped his orange hands around his mouth. "Hey! Elder!"

The Gyarados looked down, eyes narrowed, as if sizing up the threat Singe posed; Sapphire's heart beat rapidly in her chest as her mind flitted through all the stories she had heard, of Gyarados rampaging through towns, destroying entire cities, smashing anything and everything in their paths….

"Should we run?" she hissed in Singe's ear, but he seemed to be unafraid, perhaps suicidal so.

"Elder!" he shouted again. Slowly, the massive creature's head lowered itself, jaws gaping wide, until it was nearly level with him. It let out a low, deep breath, the hot air rippling over Sapphire's scales uncomfortably.

Then, to her surprise, the jaw closed and the crimson eyes seemed to become almost…gentle?

"Singe," the Elder said; his voice was so low that she could feel it through her feet as the vibrations shook the ground. "Hello there, my boy. How are you?"

Sapphire stared at him incredulously as Singe grinned. "Pretty good, Elder. And you?"

"A little tired, but that's expected for one of my age," the Elder said; his jaws opened again, and Sapphire tensed, but the mighty serpent only yawned. "My whiskers are a little sore now."

Singe smiled apologetically. "Sorry about that, we just needed to wake you up. It won't be long, I promise; then you can return to your nap. We've just got some questions for you."

The Gyarados slowly moved his head back towards his boulder, allowing his jaw to rest on it once more. He considered the pair of them with mildly curious eyes. "Ask away."

Singe opened his mouth, but Sapphire beat him to it.

"Hang on, now," she said. "Aren't you Gyarados supposed to be these huge, dangerous, violent creatures? Don't you tear entire towns apart? You're just sitting here sleeping, and you didn't even bite Singe's head off when he woke you up! And how did you get here, anyway? The lake in Johto is really far away!"

The Gyarados blinked, turning his head slightly towards her, and for a moment she was scared that he really would bite off her head. Instead, he smiled.

"It's true that most of us are filled with rage, yes," he said slowly, his voice sounding like low thunder, "but that's mainly in competition for mates. The older we get, the less of a, ah, drive we have, to put it delicately. And the less drive, the less rage, and the less rage we have…well, you see. And I am much older than most. I really have no desires anymore, except perhaps to sleep. As for how I got here, well…I was asleep for a very long time. Very, very long. Somewhere around a thousand years, probably in that vicinity. When I woke up, I found that a lot of things had changed; later, some Pokemon told me that the seismic activity from the comet coming and all that really changed the landscape. I didn't know what had happened, though, when I awoke; I didn't even know how long I'd been asleep. All that I knew was that our water was almost gone. But, in place of the water, was a new, narrow river flowing from the lake. I followed it, all the way to the ocean."

"And then you went through the space-walls and found the island?"

The Elder glanced at Singe, looking faintly puzzled, and he blushed slightly.

"Space-walls helps to explain the island thing," he said, and the Gyarados nodded slowly.

"I see. Well, yes, that's right, I found the island through the, ah, space-walls."

"But how did you get here?" she asked, interested despite herself. The Elder laughed quietly; his laughter seemed to vibrate through her feet into her stomach.

"Well, it wasn't really that difficult. It just took a few Psychic Pokemon…and about a hundred Flying types." He laughed again, his ruby-red eyes seeming to glow at the memory. "You see, I didn't find the island first thing; I roamed all over the world, seeing what had changed while I was sleeping…but by the time I finally found this island, I was desperately tired. All I wanted was a secluded place to rest…the coast was too noisy for me. That's where most of the big cities are, you know. Too stressful.

"My stories were popular with the Pokemon there, so I was well-known; the red scales probably don't hurt. Anyway, there were plenty of Pokemon willing to help me find a new home; some Psychics helped show me the entire region in their minds, showing me all of the places that I could live. I finally settled on here."

"What were the Flying types for?" Sapphire asked. "Did they carry you here?"

He let out another rumbling laugh. "Dear Arceus, no. They simply managed to get me into the air, so the Psychics could Teleport me here."

She frowned. "Get you into the air?"

"Teleporting works with all sorts of motions," Singe explained. "Like, you move side-ways through space to get to another place, you know? But moving up and down is hard for them; if you're on the ground, you'll be on the same level at wherever you Teleport to. The coast is lower than here, so he would have appeared in the middle of the ground, or something."

The Elder nodded. "It's possible for them to move smaller objects up and down, but it would have been impossible for them to raise me up. So the birds helped me into the air, and the Psychics Teleported me here. I was a little too high, but it was okay, I was tough enough to withstand the fall." He yawned, his great jaws gaping wide.

"After all that excitement, I'm afraid I fell asleep again, for a very long time; I completely missed the whole Time Gear business."

Sapphire glanced at Singe; he smiled, and she didn't even have to voice the question.

"Dialga made the Time Gears to keep the flow of time in this region steady; sometimes the space-walls kind of mess it up a bit. We had some trouble about another thousand years ago with those; that's when the second Transformed came along."

Sapphire wrinkled her nose. "I don't want to mess around with any Time What-sits."

"You won't have to," he assured her. "They're hidden in new places now, no one knows where they all are."

She nodded, then blinked. "Wait, why were we here? What were you going to ask him, before he started talking about his backstory and everything?"

"Oh yeah!" Singe exclaimed. "Elder, we were wondering…well, okay, first…what we're about to tell you can't go outside of Dewdum, okay? We're trying to keep it quiet, for now."

The Elder's whiskers twitched, and he yawned. "I'm feel a nap coming on, so don't worry, young Singe. I'll keep your secret in confidence."

Singe nodded. "Okay, then. Sapphire, would you like to do the honors?"

"I'm a human," Sapphire said bluntly. The Elder blinked slowly, and for a moment she was worried; after all, he hadn't had the best experiences with humans. However, instead of anger, his eyes seemed to show only speculative curiosity.

"Humans can be good creatures or bad; much like Pokemon, there is no way to know for sure how a human will turn out," the Elder said slowly. "The other Transformed were obviously very good, but…hmm. A Totodile. Troubling."

Sapphire glanced at Singe curiously, but he obviously was focused on his question.

"Anyway, we were wondering if you knew anything about the Legendary that everyone says is waking up, or whatever," he said excitedly. "We figured that has to be what brought her here, right?"

The Elder nodded slowly. "That sounds about right; if a Legendary was to be harmed, the world would certainly be in danger. Let's see, a Legendary…perhaps one of Unova? They haven't joined the Legend League, have they?"

Singe frowned. "They've pretty much kept to themselves still…the Legend League just now started allowing Unova Pokemon into our region. The Unova Legendaries themselves haven't really done anything…and we probably couldn't venture out of this region, so I don't think it's that." He frowned. "Are there any other ones? Any that haven't been accounted for, or something…?"

"Deoxys land now and again, to visit," the Elder said. "But they're too powerful for anyone to really take them down…hmm. It's a puzzle…oh!" His eyes seemed to glow. "I think I might know what it might be. There's a legend…."

There was a sudden humming noise; Sapphire blinked with surprise, and glanced around, but there was no one in sight. The glow in the Elder's eyes seemed to fade, and he frowned.

"Oh…there it goes again. My memory…hmm. Not what it used to be, after more than two thousand years, you know…." He sighed quietly. "I'm sorry, I can't remember what I was going to say now."

"Do you have any idea?" Singe asked hopefully. "Anything for us at all?"

"Well…." He frowned, trying to collect his thoughts. "Something about a bright light…in the sky, I thought…hmm. That's all I have for you, I'm sorry…perhaps Magnus would know more. If he's willing to tell you, I suppose." His whiskers seemed to droop. "I'm sorry I can't be of more help."

"That's okay, really, it gives us somewhere to start," Singe assured him. "We're sorry for waking you up. Right, Sapphire?" He nudged her, but she wasn't paying attention.

_My dream, _she thought. _I dreamed of a bright light, didn't I? It has to be connected. This bright light, whatever it is…that's the Legendary this is all about._

_But what kind of light was it? There were white lights in darkness…crystals, maybe? It was hard to tell…perhaps I was in a cave. Or maybe the light came from electricity? Zapdos lives in caves sometimes, right…?_

Singe nudged her again, nearly tipping her over – her balance was still a bit iffy – and she blinked.

"Oh, yeah, thanks," she said quickly. The Elder gave them a nod, his eyes already clouded with weariness; slowly, he lowered his head until his chin rested on the rock once more, his eyes drifting shut.

Singe made a shooing motion with his hand, and the two of them headed down the slope together.

. . .

They headed for Sunlit Meadow once more; at the entrance was a Sentrat who introduced herself as Tracery. They gave her a Chesto berry, and she presented them with one hundred and fifty coins in return – why she didn't just buy the berry herself for much less was unclear – before they plunged into Sunlit Meadow.

Sapphire glanced around the first room, noting the Chesto berry plant in the corner. She smirked at Tracey's stupidity, before remembering that the same items didn't always appear in the dungeon; Tracey might have gone through the whole thing without finding any Chestos at all.

The two of them quickly harvested the plant, grabbing four berries - Sapphire wrinkled her nose at the idea of eating them; their dryness didn't appeal to her at all – before continuing on their way.

Their first challenger was a Rattata; Sapphire and Singe leaped into action at the same time, but Singe, being slightly faster thanks to Sapphire's waddling gait, got their first.

"I bet I can beat more ferals than you," he boasted, grinning at her. Her eyes glittered at the challenge.

"You're on!"

At that point, they split up, and their mission became fighting ferals, rather than finding the Flagstone; after all, this time all they had to do was find an apple. Sapphire KO'd the ferals with ease, bringing down a few of them with Water Guns simply for the pleasure of it. Singe carried the map, but she had the badge, as team leader.

She finally stumbled upon the Flagstone, and found Singe waiting for her, grinning.

"Ten ferals!" he exclaimed. "How many did you get, Sapphire? Did you put them all back inside the grass?"

"Eleven," she said, grinning crookedly at him. "I guess that makes me the winner!"

Singe rolled his eyes. "For this floor, maybe; next floor, I'll beat you, just you wait!"

Sapphire stepped on the Flagstone, and the two of them quickly hurried onto the second floor, taking off in opposite directions.

Sapphire managed to find the Flagstone very quickly, but she didn't care; she was foraging for items as well as more ferals. She could _feel _herself growing stronger as she trained; instead of aiming for the whiskers to instantly beat a Rattata, she could simply Scratch its flank and have it run off. A smug look crept over her face, as she chased off two Pidgey simultaneously.

She found an apple tree, and managed to grab a few from it, but was forced to carry them around in her arms since she no longer had a bag. It made the going a lot slower; she could only carry three at a time, and she had to keep stopping to pick them up. Finally, frustrated, she allowed the third to roll away into the grass, pushing the remaining two apples under her armpits and continuing.

But the apples proved to be more trouble than they were worth; they seemed to attract hungry feral Pokemon, and with her arms full she could only attempt to Water Gun them. When she finally found her way back to the Flagstone and sat down to wait for Singe, she was exhausted.

"Only six this time," he said when he returned. "I couldn't figure out where they had all gone."

"Seventeen," she wheezed. "I was attracting all of them."

He blinked in surprise, quickly putting the apples into the bag and offering her half an Oran berry. She nibbled it, feeling it's confusing-tasting juice flood her mouth, filling her with energy.

They proceeded to the third floor.

The badge in her hand glowed immediately as they entered the third floor; the "special apple" was obviously here. Singe and Sapphire started down the hallway, before Singe paused, frowning. She glanced at him.

"What is it?" she asked; he was looking down at the Wonder Map.

"I'm not sure," he said slowly. "There's just this orange icon, here on the right…." He pointed with one claw, and she blinked slowly at the little orange spot. Then, to her surprise, it began to blink.

The badge suddenly vibrated gently.

_Quarry has been picked up by: Rattata, _the badge said. Sapphire and Singe exchanged glances.

"The Rattata must have the apple," Singe said. "I guess the orange icon is supposed to tell us that, or something, hmm."

The badge vibrated again.

_Quarry has been stolen by: Pidgey, _it said. Singe looked nervous.

"If the ferals start fighting over it, we'll have a mess on our hands," he said. "Come on, let's hurry up and find this thing!"

The two of them began walking quickly, down the twisting passages and through the large rooms. Every few moments, their badge would vibrate gently, telling them that something else had stolen the special apple.

Sapphire was growing increasingly frustrated, as they took down feral Pokemon after feral Pokemon, while not getting any closer to finding the apple.

"This is ridiculous," she grumbled. "Here, we'll split up. If I find the apple, I'll Teleport us away. If you do, just come and find me on your Map. Okay?"

Singe nodded. "That might be the best way to go around this. Okay, I'll head down that hallway; you go down the other. Hopefully we'll have some luck…." He sighed quietly, heading down the hall. She paused for a moment, watching him go, before heading the opposite direction.

The gentle vibrating of the badge quickly grew annoying, but there was no way to turn it off. It was only slightly useful to know what Pokemon currently had the apple; since there were only Rattatas and Pidgeys here, it didn't really help.

She Scratched a Rattata, sending it running for cover, but leaving no apple behind. She felt like hitting her head against a Flagstone; how on earth were they supposed to find this apple, with infinite numbers of feral Pokemon hanging around?

_Not infinite numbers, _she thought firmly. _Just lots. And if I have to knock them all down to find this stupid apple, then I will!_

. . .

She wasn't sure how long she walked, or even whether or not she was going in circles; all she knew was that no matter how many feral Pokemon she took down, there was always another waiting, always another vibration of her badge telling her that someone else had the apple now. When she found the Flagstone, she nearly collapsed; her stomach rumbled loudly, and she felt completely drained of energy. Propping herself up against a rock, she was forced to realize that she was not going to find this apple. It was up to Singe now. She simply didn't have the energy.

Her stomach gurgled again, and she touched it with a wince; she was _starving. _She hated feeling weak, but there was nothing she could do; Singe had all the items.

Her badge vibrated again gently, and she scowled, not even listening to the words. She tucked the badge underneath her tail, muffling it; why did it matter who had it now?

She must have drifted off, for when she opened her eyes, the sun had migrated; it was almost sunset now. She sighed quietly, before a small thump caught her attention. She turned, and her eyes widened in alarm; Singe was lying in the entrance of one of the hallways. She rushed to his side quickly, rolling him over; he let out a quiet moan. He was covered in small scratches and abrasions. Tucked under one apple was an apple, huge, round, glistening. It was all Sapphire could do not to gulp it down.

"Singe?" she asked anxiously. "Singe? Are you okay?"

"Hey, Sapphire," he croaked, his eyes fluttering open. "I got the apple…how many did you beat, huh? I took down…thirty seven…they really wanted this apple, Sapphire…."

It was obvious that he was completely drained; she went to their bag to retrieve an Oran berry, only to find that it was empty.

"Sorry," he said quietly, his voice a whisper. He struggled to sit up. "There were just so many of them, you know…."

Her red eyes softened. "It's okay, Singe, you got the apple. You did good, okay? Come on, let's get home." She touched the apple with one hand, feeling its firmness – this was better than a normal apple, certainly; no wonder the ferals were after it – and felt the badge vibrate again.

_Quarry retrieved. End mission?_

"Heck yes," she said tiredly. "Badge, take us home."

Everything dissolved away in a bright flash of light.

. . .

They appeared just outside of Sunlit Meadow; the glow of Dewdum's gentle lights spilled out ahead of them, nearly hidden by the forest. Sapphire yawned; she felt even more tired out of the dungeon, if that was possible. She struggled to her feet, supporting Singe on her shoulder, as the two of them slowly headed back to the town.

"Sorry," Singe said again in her ear. "I shouldn't have used all the berries…there were just a lot of them…did the badge tell you I had the apple? I thought you would come and help me get back…."

She felt a pang of guilt.

_When the badge vibrated and I ignored it, stuffing it under my tail…was that when he got the apple? _She wondered anxiously. _I should have been there to help him…he's all beat up now, tired…how will he get back home? I don't even know where he lives…._

They entered the town, and Singe's eyes, almost closed, seemed to open slightly as he breathed in the scents of his home. Sapphire led him carefully to Skylar's shop; there was a small Cleffa there, her eyes round with worry.

"Appie!" she squeaked, racing forward as she saw Sapphire and Singe. Singe held out the apple to her with one hand. She grabbed it, laughing delightedly and hugging it; the apple was nearly as big as she was.

"Applie! Appie!" she giggled. A smile came to Singe's face, and he let go of Sapphire, swaying unsteadily on his feet.

"Thank you!" the Cleffa beamed up at him. "My Appie was so scared that he was gonna get eated! But you saved him! Thank you!"

A gentle glow came into Singe's eyes. "You're welcome," he said. "It was nothing."

The Cleffa grinned. "That's good, cuz we don't have much money. I was in the dungeon trying to get monies with my Appie but some big bad Pokemon got us and I had to use my special Orb but I dropped Appie…." Her lip trembled, as her face changed from happy to sad. "I thought I'd lost my Appie. But you saved him! Here you go! All I managed to get from the dungeon before the Pokemon got us!"

She offered him a tiny pouch; it clinked gently as it settled in his hand. Singe blinked at it, then glanced at Sapphire, a tiny question in his eyes. She sighed quietly, realizing what he wanted, and gave him a nod.

Singe handed the pouch back to the Cleffa. Her round eyes widened with surprise.

"Like I said, it was nothing, not hard at all," Singe said gently. "If you guys need the money, you should keep it. We can always get more."

The Cleffa's face lit up in delight. "Mommy will be so happy! Thank you!" She raced forward, wrapping her stubby arms around Sapphire in a hug. Sapphire froze awkwardly, uncertain of what to do, but the Cleffa quickly released her, hugging Singe tightly. He grimaced in pain as her hand brushed one of his wounds, and she seemed to almost be tipping him over, but there was still a glow in his green eyes.

_How can he do that? _She wondered. _Say it's nothing, when he's so hurt and tired…refuse the reward….Who _does _that? We put in a lot of effort for that stupid apple, and he just…._

Her thoughts trailed off as she understood, seeing Singe look down tenderly at the Cleffa as she continued to hug him.

_Because that's just the stupidly gallant guy he is, _she thought, feeling almost sad. _This is why he wanted to make a team, to help people…even if he gets all beat up doing it._

She suddenly felt a wave of guilt. _And here I am, trying to take advantage of him…just using him until I can figure out why I'm here…._

Her stomach knotted with self-loathing, and she quickly looked away from Singe.

The Cleffa finally let go, and with another sweet 'Thank you!' she trotted away, holding Appie and the pouch of money tightly to her chest.

Sapphire felt Singe's gentle warmth against her side, as he leaned on her once more. Only when she heard him let out a quiet sigh and felt his weight increase did she realize he'd fainted clean away.

She turned, catching him with her stubby arms before he could completely fall, then looked around helplessly; she couldn't completely carry the Charmander on her own. She swallowed, feeling panic rise up inside of her; then, she heard a quiet cough.

Skylar was watching them, in his shop; for once, he didn't look angry or sulky.

He turned without a word, disappearing into the back of the shop. He was gone for only a moment, before he was coming around from the outside of the shop, having exited through the back.

"Here, let me help," he said quietly. Gratefully, she surrendered singe to his feathery hands. He picked up Singe like the little Charmander was nothing.

"We'll take him to Miss Liss, to get patched up," he said. Sapphire could only nod, following him through the town until Miss Liss's shop appeared in front of them.

The sun was nearly completely down now, and Miss Liss wasn't there. Leaning Singe against the shop's wall, Skylar tapped on the shop counter, calling her name.

It took her several moments to appear; when she did so, she was yawning, before her pretty blue eyes widened as she saw the state that the two team members were in.

"Oh, dear!" she exclaimed, hopping right onto the shop counter and then jumping beside Sapphire. "You two look awful!"

"They just came back from a mission; apparently a hard one," Skylar said. "I figured you could patch them up."

"Of course, just a moment," Miss Liss said. She clasped her hands together, and closed her eyes. Sapphire stared at her, wondering what she was doing, before Miss Liss suddenly emitted a pulse of pink light. Sapphire gasped, feeling energy fill her body; she could almost feel her wounds healing themselves. Singe's wounds healed as well, before her eyes, as if he was still in the dungeon. He stirred, but his eyes did not open.

"He should be okay, but he'll need some rest," Miss Liss said anxiously.

"I can carry him home," Skylar offered. Sapphire was surprised at his kindness; but she could see his anxiety as he looked down at Singe.

_He's one of them, _she realized. _He lives here, in Dewdum…Skylar's probably known him since he was little. They all know how he is…how nice, how welcoming, how selfless…he's like part of their weird Dewdum family._

"I don't know where he lives," she admitted. "He can just stay with me."

Skylar nodded, and picked up Singe again. Sapphire thanked Miss Liss, but she only nodded, and the three of them headed through Dewdum.

They climbed up the slope together, with Sapphire's legs again complaining of the hike. She led them down the path, finally pointing at her house; it looked like even more of a ramshackle shack with Skylar's critical eyes glancing over it.

He flexed his powerful legs, before leaping, jumping over the water that encircled her house, landing in front of the porch. She quickly followed, jumping into the water and then allowing her powerful tail to propel her into the air.

Skylar glanced around inside the hut; the light was dim, the last rays of sunlight filtering in through the cracked windows.

"Put him there," Sapphire said, indicating her bed. Skylar nodded, placing Singe on the bed, moving his tail carefully so that the dimly flickering flames wouldn't catch the bed on fire. He sat back, staring at Singe's tail for a moment as if transfixed, before turning to Sapphire.

"Thanks," she said quietly; she wasn't sure what else to say about Skylar's unexpected kindess.

He gave her a shrug. "No problem, dudette," he said. "Just take care of him, okay? He might just kill himself working so hard, if you aren't there to watch him. I wouldn't want that to happen."

There was a quiet threat behind his words, as his beady bird eyes looked down at her. She nodded quickly, and Skylar moved past her, out of the hut.

She turned to watch him go, seeing him leap over the river and running through the woods, disappearing. She turned again to look at Singe, sleeping peacefully. She took a step towards him, then hesitated; she wasn't experienced with things like this.

"Hey," she whispered to him; he stirred again, but didn't open his eyes. "Sorry about all this...today…I should have been with you. Splitting up was a dumb idea…sorry." She reached out, resting her hand on his stomach. "You won the competition, okay? You're…you're loads better at all this than I ever could be."

She felt another rush of guilt, and quickly pulled her hand away. She sighed quietly.

_The Elder was right…I'm not like the other Transformed. I'm not a hero, like they were…I don't know how to be, _she thought, as she curled up on the floor. A nail poked into her leg, but she ignored it._ Why was I chosen for this? I don't know what to do, about any of this…I'm not…._Her eyes were drifting closed, as her tired and battered mind fled to sleep. She tried to focus, to think, but she was losing herself to the tide of weariness overcoming her.

_I'm not a hero._

**AN: I was always curious about those delivery missions. It seemed like they could just use an Escape Orb and buy the item from the shop, or something…although in this case Tracey had an excuse. I wouldn't want to deal with Zee just to get a Chesto berry, would you?**

**Also, can you guys guess Sapphire/Singe's natures? Singe's is obvious (I've made both his berry dislikes and likes apparent) but we've only seen Sapphire's disliked berry, so I'm curious if you can figure them out.**

**I was also always curious why the Pokemon in the games didn't steal from each other, since they were supposed to be all bad/crazy and stuff. Hmm.**

**Sorry again for the length between updates; it's partially because this story doesn't feel as though it's getting as much interest, compared to my other projects. Maybe a few more reviews, instead of just three in a month? Pretty please? ^^;**


	11. Chapter 9: Bad Day

**AN: You do have a point, Crowstorm; I just find it a little discouraging that the prologue of Chilled gave more reviews than all nine or so chapters of this…and the number of people who read this and who actually review is sort of unbalanced. But that's okay, I guess it just makes each review more precious, right?**

**I do appreciate all of the reviews I receive, honestly. Don't listen to my spoiled demands. ^^**

**C **_**h a p t e r **_**9**

She opened her eyes to the delicious smell of something cooking. She laid there for a moment, wondering where the smell could be coming from, then yawned and sat up. To her surprise, she was in her bed; Singe was nowhere to be seen.

Frowning, she stood, waddling out of the hut. Singe was sitting on the other side of the water, poking a little campfire with a stick. He brightened as he saw her.

"Good morning, Sapphire!" he chirped happily. "I thought we could use some protein to help us rest up." He gestured to a small wooden plate, atop which laid three beautiful fried eggs.

Her stomach rumbled, and she quickly dove into the pool, using her tail to propel her onto the opposite bank. She smiled at him, and sat down to eat, grabbing one of the eggs straight off the plate, only to yelp as it burnt her hand. She threw it into her mouth to relieve her hand, only to find it burning her tongue. She opened her jaws, fanning her mouth frantically before gulping the egg down.

The burning egg definitely jolted her awake, and with her alertness came the memories of the day before. She drooped slightly, staring down at her round feet.

Singe had been laughing at her panicked fanning, but he frowned as he realized she was apparently sad.

"What's the matter?" he asked. "Don't you like eggs?"

"Why did you make me team leader?" she asked abruptly. He looked surprised.

"Because you're one of the Transformed, of course," he said, as though it was obvious.

"But is there any other reason?" she pressed. "Any reason that you think I'm capable of being team leader?"

He cocked his head to one side, watching her. "Well, you're strong, decisive…determined. You don't back down, even when you're scared…."

"But you didn't know that, when we first met, and you made me team leader anyway," she pointed out. He chuckled.

"Of course I did; I trusted that because you're one of the Transformed, you'd be good at it. Arceus or whoever transformed you wouldn't have picked you if you weren't a good leader."

"I might be a decent leader, but that doesn't mean I'm a good _Pokemon,_" she said quietly. "I'm not…like you." She was uncomfortable, speaking of her feelings in such a matter; punching a feral Pokemon in the face would be more in her comfort zone, but at the same time, the guilt was gnawing away at her mercilessly.

Singe blinked at her, a glimmer of concern in his eyes. "Don't beat yourself up about yesterday; I think the ferals did enough of that for you," he said with a smile. "It's okay, you're still new at this. That was only our third mission, and this is only your third day as a Pokemon. Things will get easier, okay? Trust me." He gave her another warm smile.

"But you _belong _here," she said. "I don't. I'm not sure I ever could. I feel like I…stand out." She stared down at her blue hands. "And I wouldn't have given the reward back to that Cleffa. You did, and you didn't even know her name."

"Her name's Stella, actually, it was on the mission card," Singe said. "But, really, it's not a big deal. You'll settle in with time; I've lived here almost all my life. And it's okay that you didn't give the money back, because I did. There's a reason I found you, you know." He grinned. "Nothing happens by accident out here. I believe everything happens for a reason, even if we don't understand it. Maybe that's why you found me; I even out your faults, and you even out mine. Together, we're the perfect team." He pushed the plate towards her. "Eat another one, but try not to burn yourself this time, okay? I'd hate to have to ask Miss Liss to perform a Heal Pulse on your tongue."

Obediently, Sapphire gulped down another egg – they really were delicious – and then blinked. "What kind of eggs were these?"

He shrugged. "I don't know, some sort of songbird. I found them in a nest."

"Are you ever going to explain how normal animals can live out here?" she asked. Singe nodded, lying back on the grass, tucking his arms behind his head. His green eyes blinked up at the sky, reflecting the puffy white clouds overhead.

"Well, a long time ago, normal animals and Pokemon lived sort of at the same time," he said slowly. "But the Pokemon were obviously bigger and stronger and better adapted to their homes, so most of the normal animals died off. Humans preserved some of them; you've probably seen some old movies, right, about normal animals?"

She wrinkled her snout, trying to remember; she thought she remembered something about a class and a movie about strange animals that she couldn't quite remember, but she wasn't sure.

"Anyway, as you can see, there aren't many wild Pokemon around here, right? So the competition was removed, for most of them, and they started coming back. These animals are what most civilized Pokemon eat; we can't all live on apples, and hunting ferals is too dangerous, and we can't eat each other. There are these things called 'cows' that are really fat – like smaller Miltanks, and they walk on all fours all the time! – that some civilized Pokemon sort of take care of. They've been around as long as anyone can remember; we think some of the Psychic Legendary Teleporte them here years and years ago, or maybe Arceus made more of them for us, or something."

"So they live in the wild? Normal birds and fish and stuff?"

Singe nodded. "Yep. We could find some fish and move them to your pond, if you wanted. I bet they'd like it there, and you could eat them whenever you wanted, right? Maybe we'll do that sometime." He looked pleased by the idea.

"Maybe," she said. Her stomach rumbled again gently, and she glanced down at the third egg.

"Go ahead," Singe said, standing, brushing some of the grass off of his butt and knees. She reached out for the egg, then hesitated. Sighing quietly, she pushed it back towards him, standing up as well.

"You're the one who fought thirty-seven Pokemon on one floor," she reminded him. "Skylar had to carry you all the way home. You eat it."

"I should thank him," Singe said, picking up the wooden plate and sliding the egg off into his waiting mouth. "Mind dousing the fire?"

She nodded, shooting a small Water Gun at it, sending up a burst of steam as the fire fizzled out. Singe stepped on the remaining embers, making sure they were no longer burning, before walking over to a small, dusty brown mailbox that looked as though it could use a coat of paint.

"Hey, Sapphire, didn't they give us a feather to put in here?" he asked, peering inside. He blew into the mailbox, sending out a plume of dust. He coughed, stepping back and fanning his hand over it, sending the dust drifting away.

"I think so. Is it in the bag?" she asked. He rifled around inside, finally pulling out a brown feather, tipped with red.

"We'll put it right here," he said, tucking it into a small slit on the top of the mailbox. Then, he glanced back at the bag, and frowned. "It's so light…we really need to find some more Oran berries," he decided. "We should look for some for today's missions."

"More missions?" Sapphire asked, surprised. He blinked.

"Of course, it's early, we've got loads of time…I mean, unless you don't want to?" he asked anxiously. "I don't want to force you into anything, I just figured that we should try to hurry…I mean, we've got fifteen points now, but we're not even half way to Bronze rank, let alone Gold…."

"No, you're right, we should do more missions…I guess," she grumbled. "We need to redeem the last two before we go, though, I didn't have time yesterday."

Singe nodded, and started to head down the dusty path, before freezing. "You hear that?"

She opened her mouth to enquire about what he'd heard, before blinking as the sound of beating wings reached her ears. She looked upwards as best she could, and to her surprise saw a massive bird bearing down on them. She tensed, hands curling into fists.

The bird landed on their mailbox; it creaked and groaned under his weight. He stared at the pair of them with beady eyes. It was a Staraptor, but not a pretty specimen; his feathers were ruffled, and she could see scars underneath his slightly dull plumage. One jagged scar ran all the way down one of his large, well-muscled legs.

He carried a small bag, the strap of which looped around his neck. Opening the mailbox with one foot, he pulled out several bright pink letters from his back, dropping them in the mailbox, then closed it. With one beat of his powerful wings, he was in the air again and soaring away.

"Sarge, our mail-carrier," Singe explained, opening the mailbox. "I wonder what he's brought us, let's see…." He rifled through the letters. "Well, this one is from the Legend League, congratulating us on becoming a team and completing our first mission…wow, they're fast. This one wants us to fill out some paperwork concerning our possession of this base…easy. This one is some sort of advertisement for…." He flipped the letter over, surveying the back of it. "A storage facility, owned by someone named Lizzy….Purrloin Inc, it says. Hmm. Must be new, I've never heard of it…it'll be good to have a new business, I guess, although Libby won't be pleased. I'm not sure what a Purrloin is, but I guess we'll find out, hmm?"

He frowned. "I think that's all there…oh, wait! Missed something!" He reached into the back of the mailbox, pulling out a final pink letter. He opened it, reading in silence, a slow smile spreading over his face.

"Anew mission!" he exclaimed. "And this one we got by request! Listen:

"Dear Team Savage!

"My friend Creampuff told me all about how you saved her little daughter, Cookie! She says you even beat the boss of Sunlit Meadow! I hope you really did, because I need your help! I have a friend named Spice! She's very tough! She thought she could beat the boss of Sunlit Meadow! She's gone looking for him! I need you to save her, pretty please! You were the first team I thought of, thanks to Creampuff! Please go to Sunlit Meadow and look for her!

"Sincerely, Sugar!"

He frowned. "She used a lot of exclamation marks…it must be important." He glanced at Sapphire. "Think we can take on the boss again? It doesn't say what floor 'Spice' is on, so she might not be too far, but we should still make sure she's okay."

Sapphire nodded. "I bet the boss will be easy this time; we're loads stronger already."

Singe beamed. "That's the spirit!" He pocketed the letters. "Come on, let's go!"

. . .

They managed to pick up a few Oran berries from Zee without too much of a struggle, before visiting Miss Liss to thank her for her help, and finally going to Skylar to thank him as well and appraise their missions.

Singe beamed down at their badge, which now had a shiny '15' engraved on it, before handing it back to Sapphire. He grabbed two more missions from the board – one to rescue a Pokemon on the second floor, another to deliver a simple apple – and then they were on their way, just like that.

. . .

The badge glittered on the very first floor, which pleased them both; Sapphire didn't want to spend all day in a dungeon.

"Let's find him and deliver the apple," Singe said, and the two of them headed down the hallway together. This time, they encountered fewer ferals than usual; perhaps word had spread of the two fearless explorers, willing to take down any Rattata or Pidgey with ease.

They found the quarry quickly, handed off the apple, and watched as the badge teleported him away, before continuing onto the second floor.

The second floor mission was easy as well; they found the quarry almost immediately, teleported him away, and were on their way.

By the third floor, Singe was worried about them not having found 'Spice' yet. Sapphire assured him that even if they went all the way to the boss, they'd be fine, but he was still anxious about fighting the Pidgeotto a second time.

Finally, on the fifth floor, their badge gave off a sparkle. Singe sighed with relief.

"Thank goodness," he said. "Come on, let's hurry up and find this 'Spice' person."

"Hopefully it's not a Rattata or Pidgey; hate to knock her out by mistake," Sapphire smirked.

The two of them headed down the hallway together – they'd been careful not to split up, after what had happened last time – making short work of the ferals they encountered. They found the Flagstone fairly early on, but ignored it; they couldn't leave the floor without helping Spice, or they'd have to go through the whole thing again.

There was a sudden burst of light as they walked down another twisting hallway; Sapphire broke into a run, following the light, then stopped and blinked with surprise.

A Growlithe was growling savagely at a small Rattata; flames were leaking out of its mouth as it rumbled menacingly. The Rattata had a burn on one flank, but to its credit it stood its ground, chattering angry at the large orange puppy.

"Hang on, Spice!" Singe exclaimed, pushing past Sapphire. "We'll take care of this!"

Spice turned her eyes onto Singe, letting out a menacing growl. "My prey!" She let loose another Ember, scorching the Rattata and making the air smell of burnt fur. The Rattata whimpered with pain and raced away, disappearing into the grass, still smoking.

"It's okay, Spice, we're here to help," Singe said warmly. "Don't worry about a thing. Sugar sent us, we're here to take you home, alright?"

Spice flattened her fur, but still looked faintly suspicious. "Sugar sent you? Why? I'm totally fine?"

Sapphire glanced her over; aside from a few cuts on her legs and one on her chest, the Growlithe did indeed appear to be okay.

_Tough little thing, _she thought. _If Singe wasn't already a Fire type, I'd suggest marking her part of the team…we can have three team members right? I think we can have a total of four…but three would be a solid number. Who will our third member be?_

"Come on, we can Teleport you home with the badge; Sugar was really worried," Sapphire said. The Growlithe looked cautious for a moment, then approached. Sapphire held out her hand, but the Growlithe was slightly out of reach.

"Can I see that map?" she asked curiously, pointing to the Wonder Map that Singe clutched in his hands with one fluffy paw. Singe glanced at Sapphire, then shrugged.

"Sure," he said, turning it around so that she could look at it. The Growlithe peered at it for a moment, before her face lit up and her thick tail began to wag.

"That's where the Flagstone is! I've been looking forever!" she exclaimed, her tail wagging furiously. "Thanks, guys! Boss, here I come!" With that, she sprang over their heads, her thick paws thumping against the ground as she raced down the hallway.

"She's heading for the boss!" Singe cried. "Hurry, we've got to stop her!"

But the sound of grass flattening told them that they were already too late. They burst into the Flagstone room just in time to see Spice's tail disappearing into the sixth floor.

"She can't fight the boss on her own, no matter how tough she is!" Singe exclaimed. "Come on, let's go!"

The two of them raced after her as quickly as they could, running into Floor Six and hearing the fifth floor close behind them.

Sapphire's eyes narrowed as they charged down the hallway, towards where the Pidgeotto would surely be waiting.

_Time for a rematch, _she thought, as they entered the main room.

Spice was already facing off against the boss when they entered; flames leaked from the side of her mouth as she growled up at the great bird. But the Pidgeotto was not afraid; it seemed to have completely healed from its encounter with Team Savage.

It let out a Gust of wind from its wings, buffeting the Growlithe puppy. Spice quickly sprang to her paws, and let loose a valiant Ember, but the Pidgeotto was too high in the sky.

"Come on, Sapphire," Singe said quickly, striding forward. Spice saw them out of the corner of her eye; then, to Sapphire's surprise, she turned on them, raising her hackles.

" Back off!" she snarled. "I can do this myself!"

The Pidgeotto, seeing that she was distracted, swooped downwards with open talons, ready to grab her.

"I don't think so!" Singe shouted, and from his mouth came a burning Ember, blazing over the Pidgeotto's feathers. The Pidgeotto let out a shrill cry of pain, flapping quickly back up into the sky.

Sapphire readied herself for a Water Gun; that would send the bird falling straight out of the sky. She smirked at the thought, and tensed, ready for the Pidgeotto's next move.

Spice was still snarling at them. "I can handle this! Just leave me alone!" she barked.

Sapphire ignored her, keeping her eyes on the boss, who was flying around just above their heads. Sapphire frowned; what was he doing? Why wasn't he attacking them furiously, as he had done before?

It was only when the smell of burnt feathers began to dissipate that she realized the boss was simply biding his time, allowing himself to heal before he struck again. She glanced at Singe; he looked worried.

"I guess he learned since we took him down before," Singe said anxiously. "We need to—oof!" The wind was knocked out of him as the Growlithe Tackled him to the ground. Snarling, Sapphire advanced, ready to shoot her Water Gun at the stupid puppy. The Growlithe faced her without fear, her large paws on Singe's chest.

"Singe won't hurt you," Sapphire growled menacingly, "but don't think that I won't. Get off of him, right—"

"Sapphire!"

Singe's alarmed shout made her turn, and her eyes widened as she saw the Pidgeotto streaking towards her, practically falling out of the sky, wings pulled back to increase its speed. There wasn't time to move out of the way, she was too slow. She opened her mouth to unleash a torrent of water, but even as she did so she knew it would be too late—

She was dimly aware of the feeling of the Pidgeotto's beak striking her, before the pain completely wiped all sensation away. She hit the ground hard, letting out a gasp of pain, feeling all the wind being completely knocked out of her. Her chest seemed to _scream, _and she scrabbled at it weakly with her hands, willing to do anything to make the pain go away, make it stop….

She was aware of the Pidgeotto's wing-beats as the boss took to the air again, but she couldn't move; it was as if she was paralyzed. In the back of her mind, she could hear her screams, feel them ripping out of her body, but she couldn't hear them with her own ears.

Her vision seemed to slide, the edges darkening. She saw Singe's green eyes hovering over her; she latched onto them, staring back, trying to hold the tide of black away. She remembered that first time they came over her…that first time where she had to fight them back…that first time when she had woken up to realize that she was a Pokemon….

"Oh, Arceus, no," she heard Singe whisper. She tried to speak, to tell him something, but this time she couldn't fight off the darkness….

_And then…._

_She snuggled against her covers, feeling the softness of her Sentret pillow. Her father had made it just for her; his hands were large, but nimble. He could make anything, out of anything; a pillow for her head, the wooden frame of her bed, the special paint that made the stars on her ceiling glow with celestial light._

"_Tell me a story," she said softly, blinking up at him. His blue eyes, the eyes they shared, were dark in the shadows of the night. His lined face was gently illuminated by the glowing crescent of her Teddiursa lamp._

"_A story?" he said slowly; his voice was a gentle rumble, and she could almost feel it in her toes. She wiggled them to make sure, and smiled sleepily._

"_A story," she repeated. "Tell me about the prince in the stars."_

_Her father sat back. "I don't know," he said slowly. "I think you've heard that story too many times. How about something new? Do you want to hear about the Muk who made a mud bride? Or how about the Weedle that wove a magic bed?" There was a slight hint of a smile on his face; she could see the glitter of his white teeth, like stars themselves._

"_No," she laughed at him. "Tell me the story of the prince in the stars!"_

_Her father sat down, and her bed creaked softly; he moved her legs slightly out of the way to give himself more room. She pulled the soft Cottonee covers to her chin, blinking at him._

"_Once upon a time, there was a prince in the stars," her father whispered to her, reaching up with one thumb to brush one of her dark curls from her forehead. "This prince was looking for something, a princess. But he was cursed…he could only find this princess every thousand years. And every thousand years, he would call, 'My shooting star—'"_

"_Granting wishes from afar," she whispered._

"_Look up at the sky and see me," he continued._

"_And we will fly forever free," she finished. Her father chuckled quietly._

"_What did I say? You know this story too well. Why don't you tell it to me, hmm?" He grabbed one of her plushies, holding it to his chest in an imitation of her. She frowned at him._

"_I can't tell it right," she protested. "Not like you. You tell it best, Daddy."_

"_I'm flattered," he said with a smile. Then, he glanced at her clock, and frowned. "It's too late, dearest."_

"_But you've got to finish it! You have to tell about the special star and the battle and the—"_

"_Tomorrow, I promise," he said softly. "You've got school tomorrow."_

"_My first day," she said, and a smile came to her face. Then, she bit her lower lip with worry. "Will the other kids like me? Will they like the stars too?"_

"_How can anyone not like the stars?" her father responded. He bent down to kiss her forehead, his whiskery lips brushing her skin, before standing. Gently, he reached over to tap the lamp, extinguishing its light._

"_Wait," she called to her father, as the fear of the darkness began to well up inside of her. But she could hear his footsteps, slowly moving away…._

_And then…._

_And then she could feel hands lifting her head, someone trying to open her mouth, something putting something strange on her tongue._

"_Get her to swallow," she heard someone order. She felt pressure on her throat, and reflexively swallowed, sending whatever it was on her tongue sliding down her throat…._

_She choked, struggling weakly, but she didn't have the energy..._

_And then…._

She was suddenly filled with a burst of energy; it felt as though her entire body was humming. Her eyes snapped open, and she blinked up at Singe's anxious face.

"Oh, thank Arceus you're okay," he breathed. She sat up slowly, then winced; her stomach felt tender. Glancing down, she saw a large mark on her chest, just to the left of the middle of the v-shaped marking on her chest.

"That's going to scar," a smooth voice said softly. She turned, and her eyes widened as she saw Lune smiling at her.

"I must have gotten hit harder than I thought," she said slowly. "What's going on here?"

"Hello! I'm Sugar!" a voice purred. A bright Skitty poked her head out from behind Lune. "You guys were taking forever! So I got another team to come and help! And what a good thing I did! Spice says you guys were in trouble!"

Her exclamation points were making Sapphire's head pound. Slowly, she stood.

"So you brought Lune?"

"And the rest of Team Darkspark," a voice growled. Sapphire turned to see a Luxio, wearing a bright pink ribbon on one ear, glaring at her. Beside her was a Meowth, who was licking his paw and drawing it over his ear, looking bored.

"They beat the boss," Singe said, gesturing towards the fallen Pidgeotto; it wasn't moving.

"Is it dead?" Sapphire asked slowly.

"Almost," Singe said quietly. He looked almost…ashamed? "It might live. I'm not sure. We had to look after you. He hit you almost on your weak spot, and it was a hard strike, much to much for the pair of us….If it had hit you spot on, you could have died. The badge would have taken you away, but it was in your hand when the Pidgeotto hit you. I'm sorry, Sapphire, I should have done something…."

"We gave you one of _our _Reviver Seeds," the Luxio said haughtily. "You'd better be grateful!" Sparks still danced over her black and blue coat, and Sapphire guessed that she was the one who had done most of the damage to the boss.

"Now, Luminita, simmer down a bit," Lune said calmly. "I think she's been through enough. Are you feeling better?"

Sapphire nodded slowly, then touched her chest gingerly; even brushing her hand over the wound caused it to ache.

"Go ahead and get your badge, you completed your mission," Lune ordered. "I don't think Spice will object now."

Sapphire glanced at the Growlithe; the puppy wasn't looking at her, and was instead looking at her paws, shame ruffling her coat.

The Meowth stopped his licking. "Hang on now, boss," he meowed in an irritating, squeaky voice. "She fainted!"

"And her team-mate revived her," Lune said firmly.

"With our Reviver Seed!" Luminita bristled. "Don't you know how much those cost?"

Lune glanced at the Growlithe. "We'll receive full payment for that, now won't we?"

Spice looked up, confusion in her eyes. Sugar squeaked,

"I was telling Lune on the way here about our plan! To become a legend team! And how you wanted to fight the boss to prove your strength!" she meowed excitedly. "At first I wasn't so sure! But Lune is so strong! These feral Pokemon are nothing to him! He breezed right through them! All of them did!" She beamed happily. "And Luminita told me that I don't have to be strong! I can support you in everything you do, Spice! I can weaken the opponent with Growling and things like that! So we are going to be a legend team, Spice! And we will work hard to repay Lune for his time and his Reviver Seed!" Then, she frowned. "And we are going to pay Team Savage too, because of everything you put them through!"

Spice scuffed her paw in the dirt. "Okay," she mumbled, her fluffy tail lowered slightly. "Can we go home now?"

Singe plucked the badge from the ground, holding it out to Sapphire. She took it, still feeling dazed.

_Quarry acquired, _the badge said. _Complete mission?_

"Take us home."

. . .

Spice and Sugar gave Singe a small bag of coins – four hundred, hardly worth the trouble at all – before earnestly promising Lune that he would have his payment soon. And then they were on their way, just like that, their troubles forgotten.

"Thanks for your help," Singe said grudgingly to Lune. "Things would have been…a lot worse if you hadn't come."

Lune nodded. "No problem. Always a pleasure to help out when I can." He wasn't even looking at Singe; he was smiling right at her. Sapphire flushed, but that only made her cheeks hurt.

"Yeah, well, those two had better pay us back real soon," Luminita grouched. Singe held out the bag of coins almost tentatively, but Lune shook his head.

"We were just completing Sugar's mission; she's the one that must pay us back for our troubles," he said. Then, he yawned, his black ears twitching. "I think it's time for us to be off. Good night, Sapphire." He only gave Singe a nod, before loping away, with his teammates on his heels.

Singe heaved a quiet sigh. "What a day…I didn't think I'd ever be in a position where I was actually thanking them…Sapphire, I'm sorry. It's my fault Spice even knew where the Flagstone was. I should have been more prepared, I should have been able to take on the boss easily…."

Sapphire shook her head. "I should have been aware too. But there's no point in placing blame on anyone, Singe, let's just go home."

They walked to Skylar's together, and totaled their missions - their badge now gleamed with a bright thirty – before depositing some of their money and extra items with Libby.

"If we'd lost in that dungeon, all of our money would have been gone, and half our items, too…" Singe sighed. Sapphire frowned.

"How would that happen?"

Singe shrugged. "They just disappear, right out of the bag. Some people think that might be how some items get into the dungeons in the first place, that they're scattered from losing teams' bags…I don't know…." He sighed, and she could tell that he was still downcast from their near disaster.

"We've got thirty points, though," she said quietly, hoping to cheer him up. "We're over half way there. To Bronze, at least…and once we get Bronze, we can do escort missions, like Lune did today. And we can go to Sundown Cave, too…."

Her home came into view, and she saw the mailbox, looking forlorn with its single feathered cap.

"I doubt anyone will want missions from us now," Singe said. "After today."

Sapphire shrugged. "We'll just have to do better tomorrow." She yawned slowly, and her hand found her chest again, brushing over it gingerly. Guilt clouded Singe's eyes.

"Sorry," he said again, as she sprang into the water and then onto the little island. She only blinked back at him, knowing no matter how many times she waved him away that he would still feel that guilt. She gave him a little parting nod, before retreating inside.

It was only once she was lying down on her bed, that a few pieces of her strange vision came back to her.

_That was…me, right? _She wondered. _And there was a man…a big guy. His eyes were blue…my father, maybe? And there was something…something about a story…something about the…stars…._

But her weariness whisked her away before she could try to reclaim any more of her dream.


	12. Chapter 10: Follow Me

**C **_**h a p t e r **_**10**

Sapphire woke up feeling faintly sore; she winced slightly as she hopped out of her bed, taking a moment to stretch and limber up. The marking on her chest was especially painful; she touched it gingerly, frowning down at it; the Pidgeotto had left a scar, shaped almost like its triangular beak, but a bit rough around the edges.

_Ugh. That last mission was a total bust, _she thought. _Singe is totally going to be down in the dumps about it too…I guess I can't blame him. Even if we didn't technically blow the mission…well. We've only got to do four missions until we hit Bronze…maybe that will cheer him up a bit. Hopefully._

She walked out of the little shack, only to see Singe sitting on the ground with his tail in his lap, waiting for her; she watched him with caution, afraid that he might suddenly break down, but he gave her a little smile.

She decided against her usual dive into the water, preferring to cross the rickety bridge instead; Singe smiled a bit most as she approached.

"Little sore, huh? Adventuring takes its toll after a bit. Do you want to take the day off?"

She waved him away with one hand. "No, no way. We're really close now, just four missions. I bet we can knock all of 'em out today, no sweat." She glanced towards the mailbox. "Any requests?"

Singe stared down at his tail, looking rather forlorn. "No…but I'm not surprise. Sugar and Spice are hardly going to be spreading the word about how well we handle missions…." He sighed, then stood up, brushing his orange scales free of dirt. "Oh well. No reason to be down in the Muk, right? I'm sure there will be plenty of missions at Skylar's place. Come on."

He gave her a smile, and she followed him through the woods, towards Dewdum.

The town was quiet as they entered, a bit unusual for it being noon, but Sapphire was hardly worried; for all she knew, everyone had decided to sleep in late.

"Oh, I think Napoleon must have called another meeting," Singe said with a sigh. "Might as well find out what it's about, right?"

Sapphire shrugged, and the two of them headed towards the Plaza; Napoleon was standing on his crates, looking as self-important as usual.

"My subjects," he said, a smile on his slightly plump face, "I am very glad to call you all here today. Libby has informed me that the new taxes have provided more than enough revenue to keep Lacey the Glaceon happy. We can lower them again."

"Right, the taxes that never existed," Sapphire grumbled. Singe glanced at her, but luckily Napoleon hadn't heard Sapphire over the cheering.

"Do you guys really put up with this?" she growled, but Singe muffled her words with his hand as Napoleon continued to speak.

"We are also gaining some new business in our little town, as some of you already know! A new storage facility is opening up here, owned by Purrloin Incorporated, a highly successful branch." He beamed at them. "I am sure we will all be courteous when they arrive."

"We already have a storage facility here," Libby growled, looking disgruntled. "We don't need another."

Napoleon gave her a stern look. "Every new business makes Dewdum that much greater…and isn't that what we want?"

Libby still looked unhappy, but the crowd murmured in agreement; Sapphire had the feeling that most of them were more than a little tired of the Glameow's money-grubbing ways.

"They will of course need an escort here when they arrive; I hear they're coming by mystery dungeon," Napoleon said. "So when the time comes, we'll need volunteers to lead them here. I trust you all will be very accommodating!"

Sapphire glanced at Singe. "You can travel by mystery dungeon?"

He nodded. "Remember when I told you that some of them have been moving around kind of randomly? Like, they've been teleporting and stuff? Some of them move in regular patterns, so it's possible to get easily from one place to another by entering them and passing through the dungeon, to get through another place…only really advanced explorers try, though, because of course you have to fight the boss….Lizzy or whatever her name is must have some powerful bodyguards."

Sapphire nodded, then glanced back up at the short Empoleon, who was still speaking.

"Miss Liss has stated that she has a few too many eggs to look out for, so she would appreciate it if some of the locals helped her out by adopting them," Napoleon said, then puffed his chest out. "I would be happy to take a few under my wing and show them what being important and noble is all about, but unfortunately I am much too busy keeping this town in shape. Nevertheless, I expect that we will all band together to help Miss Liss out!"

Singe was looking thoughtful; Sapphire quickly sent him a glare.

"We're not taking in any eggs, even if it gets you on her good side," she growled to him. "No way am I putting up with a baby Pokemon. This oddball town is bad enough!"

He frowned at her, then applauded quickly as Napoleon bid his town farewell and sprang down from his crate stage.

"Well, that was a monumental waste of time," Sapphire groused, as the two of them headed for Skylar's shop. "Honestly, why do you put up with him?"

"He actually does come from a line of something almost royalty," Singe said, giving Skylar a nod as they approached, before heading to the message board. "His family is very powerful and rich; he's actually Napoleon V, the fifth. The first Napoleon invented a way to combine clay with certain other minerals to create something sort of like cement…it's what almost every home or building is made of."

Sapphire glanced around, blinking with surprise; although most of the shops surrounding them had been painted various colors or given odd designs, it was easy to see that they were all made of the same stuff. "Wow. He must have a fortune."

Singe nodded. "He owns the biggest construction company in the region, yeah. Napoleon is one of his favorite grand-kids, much more so than Napoleon III or Napoleon IV…." He scrutinized one of the missions closely.

"So he has a lot of power too, even though he isn't really an emperor."

Singe nodded. "It's best to go along with things, I guess, because he actually has quite a temper, and no one wants to get on his bad side…because that means getting on his grandpa's bad side too. Here, Sapphire, I think there are three missions here we can do. They're all pretty easy…deliver a Stun Seed, rescue a couple Pokemon on the second and third floors…"

"So then we'll be five points away from Bronze," she noted, then frowned. "Aren't there any other missions we could do?"

There was a sudden pinging sound from Skylar's shop; Singe and Sapphire glanced towards it curiously, to see that the badge-reading machine was glowing. Skylar tapped a few buttons, and a small sheet printed out of it. He glanced over it, then frowned, and pressed some more buttons so that another pink slip appeared.

"Hey, dudes, got room for one more mission?" Skylar asked, turning towards them.

Singe nodded quickly, but Sapphire quickly said, "That depends. What is it?"

"Some Machamp guy is out there in the woods, probably close to Sunlit Meadow," Skylar said. "He doesn't know where he is, though; he was in a mystery dungeon trying to get to Cedar Village, but the dungeon teleported to here instead. He needs someone to guide him back to town."

"He's an explorer, right?" Singe asked. Skylar nodded.

"This machine picks up distress signals from badges, and messages too," Skylar answered. "So if something happened to you two but you didn't want to abandon the mission, you could send me a message for help and I'd spread the word for a team to back you guys up."

"Sounds easy enough, right? We won't even have to be in the dungeon," Singe said. Sapphire shrugged.

"If it'll get us to Bronze, it's fine by me," she said, as Singe took the slip from Skylar.

"It doesn't list a reward, and since it's such a simple task, we might not get one…but that's okay, so long as the points still count. Come on."

The two of them headed out of the town together, down on the path towards Sunlit Meadow.

. . .

Singe frowned when the meadow came into view; there was no Machamp in sight. He pulled out the mission slip again, peering at it, and blinked.

"Oh, it doesn't say Sunlit Meadow here," he said. "The Machamp just described a land mark, in hopes that someone might know where he was…I recognize it. Skylar was right, it's pretty close by, but that explains why the Machamp didn't just follow the path from Sunlit Meadow back to town. Come on, it's not too far from here."

Sapphire followed him as he headed for the thicker forest, bypassing the mystery dungeon; she felt a prickle of unease as something occurred to her.

"What if Sunlit Meadow was to teleport, or Sundown Cave?" she asked. Singe shrugged.

"Both of those dungeons have been here as long as the town can remember; it's usually the newer ones, those that have been popping up lately, that teleport to different locations," he said. "Although, I didn't realize that the ones that usually teleport along certain routes could get side-tracked…the dungeons might be becoming more unstable. It shouldn't matter, though, we could always send out a distress signal like he did, for someone to pick us up."

Sapphire nodded, then frowned as the woods became thicker; she let out an irritated growl as a sharp thorn skirted over her scales; it wasn't sharp enough to penetrate her scaly hide, but it itched.

"The Machamp described a big, rocky outcropping that is sort of curled…we usually call it the Sneasel's Claw," Singe said as he pushed his way through the foliage, pausing to pull back a branch; he motioned for Sapphire to move past him. She rolled her eyes at him.

"Not like I couldn't handle it myself," she said, but Singe only smiled, letting the branch fly back into place once she passed him.

"Anyway, it's one of those places that some Pokemon go to when they want to be, ah, alone. Mostly Pokemon about Skylar's age. To…you know. Make out and stuff."

He was blushing furiously under his scales at the very idea; Sapphire smirked.

"Have you ever been there? Maybe with the lovely Miss Liss?" she teased. Singe blushed even more, smoke coming from one nostril.

"No…not that I want to!" he said quickly. Sapphire only rolled her eyes at him, then blinked as the tip of the outcropping came into view.

"Come on, we're close now," Singe said, plowing through the brush, holding his tail high to make sure he didn't set off any sort of fire; Sapphire followed him, and blinked up at the Weavile's Claw; it was a decently sized landmark, a large gray stone that was almost in the shape of a crescent moon. In the middle of the curve was a Machamp; he rose to his feet as he saw them, smiling. Sapphire stopped in surprise, gaping at him.

It wasn't the fact that he had a Silcoon and a Cascoon tucked underneath his lower two arms. It wasn't that his Machamp girdle was pink, rather than the usual black. It wasn't that he had an enormous number of scarfs and other accessories draped over his neck, because his hands were all too full to carry them. It wasn't even the huge boxes he was carrying in his two upper arms, which seemed to be full of needles and threads and the like. What really made Sapphire stop and stare was that the two hands belonging to his upper pair of arms were not real hands at all. They were small, dainty, glinting with a metallic sheen.

The Machamp had robotic hands.

Singe didn't seem nearly as flustered as she was; he gave the Machamp a nod and a smile.

"Hello, hello!" the Machamp beamed at the pair of them. "Normally I'd wave, but I'm afraid I'm a little tied up at the moment. My name is Marcus, forgive me for not shaking your hands! Are you the team that is coming to guide us to whatever town is nearest?"

Singe nodded. "You're actually very close to one, sir," he said. Sapphire saw his eyes flick curiously to the Machamp's two gleaming hands, but he didn't say anything. "We'd be delighted to guide you back."

"Good, good! Would you mind grabbing a few of these for me? I've been shedding scarves and ribbons and the like this entire journey, I'm afraid."

Singe and Sapphire exchanged glances, but Singe nodded, approaching with caution; Marcus bent down slightly so that Singe could pull some of the scarves and bandanas draped over the Machamp's shoulders and neck.

Sapphire didn't move. "You have…robot hands," she blurted, staring at them. Marcus blinked, then laughed.

"So I do. I forget it myself sometimes. Here, would you like a better look?" He bent down again, putting down the boxes he had been carrying with his upper arms, before holding his hands out to her. She peered at them cautiously; they didn't _look _dangerous, but they were incredibly unnerving.

"There's an insignia on the back of one of them," Singe observed, tilting his head. "An 'M,' I think…Oh! Did you get them from that Magmar and his Metagross friend?"

Marcus nodded. "So I did! I'm still paying them off, these hands were quite expensive…but I'm sure I'll have the money in no time at all, with these two lovely ladies. Forgive me for not introducing them to you. This is Lady Iris," he pointed towards the Silcoon that he was carefully cradling, "and this is Lady Flutter."

"Ladies? Are they royalty too, or something?" Sapphire asked, feeling completely bewildered.

"You could say that. Among the silk-weaving circles, they definitely are! Both Lady Iris and Lady Flutter come from a fine line of silk producers. They're the best in the business; it's in their blood! I make accessories for a living, as you might have already guessed, and quite skillfully too! Their parents were impressed with my work and allowed me to work with them. Iris and Flutter make the silk, and with these two fine hands of mine, I make the accessories!"

Sapphire cocked her head to one side, surveying the Bug Pokemon. "Do they talk?"

The Cascoon made a muffled noise, and Marcus laughed again; he had a deep, robust laugh that seemed to bubble up right from his belly.

"So they do, although it's a little hard to hear," he said. "Lady Flutter says…." He lifted her slightly, more towards his ear; she made several muffled noises. Marcus blinked.

"She says that you're, er, rather stupid for not thinking they talked," he said; from the way his dark gray skin was flushing, Sapphire guessed that Lady Flutter had put it in balder terms.

"But, wait, I don't understand. Why do you have _robotic hands?_" she demanded. "That's just…creepy."

"Ah. Well, it's an odd story, I suppose…most Machops are raised to be fierce fighters, you know. But I never quite fit that mold. I trained diligently as my parents requested, until I reached this fine form, but battling and becoming strong was never really what I wanted. When I became a Machamp and realized that I still wasn't happy, I decided to take a different path. I had always liked designing things, so I decided to go into the accessory business…I thought having four arms would help me quite a bit. But, unfortunately, we aren't exactly made for dexterity…I couldn't do any fine work. Not until I found the M brothers!"

"A Magmar and a Metagross don't sound like brothers," she said suspiciously.

"They're not really, at least not by blood," Singe said, a note of excitement in his voice. "But they work together. They were both owned by a human trainer, the best blacksmith in any region. He treated them like his own children…he helped them learn the art of smithing. When he died, it was in his will that they be released, so they were, but they weren't happy as wild Pokemon since they couldn't use their skills, so they came here. They're easily the best blacksmiths here. Metagross makes designs that even humans could only dream of, and then Magmar actually crafts them. They're quite a pair."

Marcus beamed. "So they are! And they agreed to make these hands for me. They even matched the power-saving belt that I wear—" he paused to point down towards his pink girdle, "and designed them on the hands too, so that I could really do some delicate work. They'll take me years to pay off…but it doesn't matter. It's an honor to work with Lady Iris and Lady Flutter, and to do the work that I love!"

"Right," Sapphire said slowly; Marcus sounded insane to her – who wouldn't enjoy having four arms and practically unstoppable strength? – but she wasn't going to argue with anyone whose hands were robotic.

"Anyway, we should probably get back to the village," Singe said. Marcus nodded, picking up his load again.

"Lead the way," he smiled; Singe motioned for Sapphire to follow, and the three of them – five, with the Bug sisters – headed into the forest again.

. . .

"Now, all you have to do is follow that path, and you'll be at our town, Dewdum," Singe said, pointing down the dirt road. "I'm not sure how you'll get back to Cedar Village…maybe Magnus can help you. He's an Alakazam, he does our Linking for us." Sapphire lost interest as Singe began giving the Machamp directions; she stared into the Sunlit Meadow, her foot tapping impatiently.

Marcus nodded. "Thank you so much, both of you! I'm afraid I have very little to offer as a reward…oh! I can design you both accessories, how does that sound?" He beamed at the two of them, looking excited by the prospect.

"No, no, that's okay," Singe replied. "You've got to pay off those hands of yours, you can't give us stuff for free. It's nothing, really, you were a lot closer to town than you probably thought."

Marcus shook his head. "No, no, I insist! I'll probably be staying in Dewdum for a few days anyway, until everything is sorted out. Swing by me sometime, and you two can take your picks of my wares."

Singe smiled. "Thank you, Marcus. That's really generous."

Marcus smiled, before heading down the path; Singe watched him go, his green eyes glinting.

"I hope he sticks around," he said, as he turned towards the entrance of the Sunlit Meadow. "He's a pretty interesting guy, and we don't have a tailor here. I'm sure he could strike up a good business selling accessories and the like."

Sapphire's eyes glittered. "Maybe he can make me a crown."

"A crown?" he echoed, glancing at her. "Why would you need one of those?"

"Well, I've been thinking…a perfect utopia where no one is really in charge doesn't make sense. Someone has to be behind the wheel, even if you guys don't know who it is. I'm one of the Transformed; being a leader is practically in my blood." She puffed out her chest with pride. "I'd be a natural leader."

Singe blinked at her, then laughed. "Right. Whatever you say…although I think a crown would look weird on you, since your eyes are sort of above the top of your head…."

She gave him a glare, but he only laughed again, and together they entered the dungeon.

**AN: What do you mean robot hands aren't awesome? D:**

**Kind of filler-y, I guess, but there was some needed information and I needed to remind myself to work on this story a bit. Mhmm.**

**Also, naming chapters after songs is harder than I thought it would be. xD**


	13. Chapter 11: Another Postcard

**AN: Thanks for the reviews, darlings. I appreciate them, as always. ^^**

**C **_**h a p t e r**_**11**

"A_choo!"_ she sneezed, rubbing her nose. "I think I got that Vulpix's fur up my nose!"

Singe laughed, grinning widely. "I thought it was pretty cute when she hugged you. Especially when you obviously didn't know what to do about it." He laughed again. She glared at him.

"Well, at least we got those missions out of the way," she grimaced. "Come on, let's hurry to Skylar. I want to be Bronze rank as quickly as possible; we can see if there are any escort missions or new Sundown Cave missions to do."

Singe nodded. "They're worth more points, so we'll get to Gold Rank even faster." He turned towards the road that led to Dewdum, before stopping and blinking up at the sky; his green eyes were slightly misty. Sapphire watched him with caution.

"You aren't going to cry, are you? Isn't that bad for Fire types, or something?" she asked. Singe glanced at her, but quickly looked away, rubbing his eyes with his hands.

"Sorry about that," he said after a brief pause. "I just…it feels real now, you know? Getting to Bronze rank…it means that we're really going through with this. That we aren't letting anything stop us…even though we almost failed a mission. It means that we aren't falling apart like Skylar said we would. It means that…I'm going to be important, you know? Every Transformed has someone by his or her side to help them out, and it means that I'm going to be that Pokémon for you. And it means that my dream is really going to come true, that I really am going to be in a legend team. And…well, it means that you'll stand by me too, Sapphire. I won't lie, I was kind of afraid, at first…afraid that I wasn't strong or fierce enough for you, that you would find a new partner. But I guess I don't have to worry about that now." He gave her a wobbly smile. Sapphire blinked at him, unsure of what to do – Bronze rank was just another step on the ladder towards Gold for her – only to let out a squeak as Singe swept her up in a hug.

She wiggled in his grasp for a moment as he hugged her tightly; she felt something wet against her shoulder, and realized that he really was crying.

_This really does mean a lot to him, as weird as it is, _she recognized, and before she was quite aware of what she was doing, she found that she was hugging him back, almost enjoying the warmth of his inner fire against her scales.

Singe pulled away after a moment, sniffling. "Sorry. I promised myself I wouldn't…but…." He rubbed his eyes again. "Gimme a minute."

Sapphire's scales were already prickling uncomfortably from their moment of closeness; to distract him, she sneezed theatrically again, and to her relief Singe chuckled.

"Can't blame that one on fur, I guess," he said, looking a bit sheepish. "Um, we should probably get going, if we're planning on having more time for missions, or exploring Sundown Cave…."

Sapphire nodded quickly, eager to escape the awkward moment, and they headed back to Dewdum without another word between them.

. . .

"Hey, little bros!" Skylar exclaimed as he saw them. "Get all your missions? Are you ready to be Bronze'd?"

Singe smiled at the Combusken. "We sure are," he said; Sapphire handed him the badge, and he placed it on the counter. Skylar nodded, taking the badge and putting it in the machine, which rattled off some stats about their excellence.

"Enough points have accumulated to achieve BRONZE rank. Upgrade badge?"

"Most definitely, dude," Skylar told the machine. "Why do you even ask that question, honestly?"

The machine did not answer; there was a bright flash from it, and when Skylar reached for the badge, Sapphire was surprised to see that the pink top had been replaced by bright green.

"How is green Bronze?" she asked, as Skylar handed it to Singe. "I mean, if it was Copper rank, I could understand it, since copper gets green when its old…but Bronze? What?"

Singe blinked down at the badge he held in his hand; Sapphire was relieved that he wasn't tearing up again. "I don't know, but it sure is pretty, huh?" he asked.

"How many until we get Silver rank?" Sapphire asked.

"Silver rank is five hundred points," Skylar replied.

"So only four hundred and fifty more to go," she said with a sigh. "Are there more limits for Bronze, too? Certain missions we can't do?"

"No, actually," Skylar said, keeping one eye on Singe's flickering tail. "Bronze sort of like…cements your team. It shows you're serious, so the Legend League will let you take any mission you want, anywhere you want to go. You just have to be careful about taking on missions that are too much for you, cuz they don't really like failure."

"Thanks, Skylar," Singe said; he turned to go, until Sapphire poked him in the back.

"I thought we were going to look at the new missions?" she asked. Singe blinked, then glanced down at the badge he still held in his cupped palms.

"Actually, um, do you mind if we take the rest of the day off? I kind of want to see my mom…she lives sort of deep in the forest, so it takes awhile to get to her, but I know she would want to know that I got this far." Singe blinked at Sapphire with wide, anxious green eyes.

_He has a mother? _She wondered, before rolling her eyes mentally. _Duh, he has a mother. I just wasn't thinking about her living nearby…so she and Singe don't live together? He seems to be able to take care of himself, so I guess that makes sense, but…it's still sort of weird. I'd rather be going on missions, but I guess I can't keep him away from his mother….I mean, if I knew where mine was, I'm sure I'd want to be with her…._She felt an uncomfortable twinge in her stomach; she couldn't remember her mother, of course, or her father, for that matter, even though she was certain that she had dreamed of him earlier. The dream was foggy in her mind, almost untouchable, and as much as she struggled to remember it, it only seemed to head farther away from her.

"Yeah, Singe, that's fine," she said, coming out of her reverie as she realized he was still waiting for an answer. "I'll catch up with you tomorrow, I guess?"

Singe nodded, smiling broadly. "Yeah, of course! We can tackle Sundown Cave tomorrow, while we're fresh and ready! Thanks for understanding." He gave her a wide grin, before dashing away; Sapphire watched him go, then scowled.

_What am I supposed to do for the rest of today? _She wondered. _I could swing by Marcus's place, wherever he is, maybe find something that I like…but I don't want to do that without Singe._

She realized that Skylar was staring at her. "What?" she snapped. The Combusken blinked.

"Nothing, dudette," he said slowly. "Congrats on getting Bronze rank, really. I guess you and Singe aren't gonna crash like my team did..." He moved so that his chin was resting on his arms, which were folded on the counter. "Ever think of your third team member?"

_That's right, we can recruit now! _Sapphire thought, feeling a prickle of excitement. She realized that Skylar was still staring at her.

"No, I hadn't thought about it," she said cautiously. Skylar's gaze slid away from hers, and he began drawing circles in the dust with one finger.

"Well…if you guys ever decide you need another tough Fire type…." He trailed off. Sapphire's eyes narrowed.

_Best to nip this one in the bud, _she decided. "I think one Fire type is enough. We don't want to become unbalanced."

He sighed quietly. "Yeah. You're right."

Sapphire stood there for a moment, not sure of what to do; turning away from him would be rude, and she knew how moody teenagers were. "Have you thought of reforming your team, with your old teammates?" she asked. Skylar blinked slowly.

"No, I hadn't…but that might be an okay idea." He straightened up, before glancing around sneakily. "Hey…do you wanna light some matches with me?"

Thoroughly creeped out, Sapphire shook her head, edging away. Skylar rolled his eyes, and disappeared under the counter, probably rooting around for his crappy matches. Quickly, Sapphire waddled away, leaving the angsty Combusken behind.

She wandered aimlessly around the town for a bit, thanking her lucky stars that she at least sort of knew how to get back home without Singe. She didn't really have anywhere to go; she didn't have anyone in particular to visit, or anything that she really needed. She almost considered going to badger the Elder again to see if he remembered anything more, but decided against it; even for a Water type, facing a Gyarados of the Elder's size was terrifying.

Finally, she sighed, decided that she might as well just go home and sleep or find something to eat; she headed out of the town, walking up the slope towards the woods.

"Look, one of the losers that couldn't beat the boss," she heard a voice sneer. Peering upwards, her eyes narrowed as she spotted the sparking coat of Luminita.

"You wanna say that to my face?" she snarled up at the Luxio, but Luminita only laughed, sparks crackling over her fur.

"Luminita, no reason to be rude. They beat the boss once before, they just had a spot of bad luck," Lune said sternly. The sound of his voice made Sapphire's scales tingle; she looked up, but his dark fur was impossible to see in the shadows of the forest, at least from her angle.

She reached the top of the slope, blinking at the three of them. "What are you doing here?"

Luminita snorted. "We're returning to the town, obviously. We completed our missions today, so we're going to Skylar to have them taken care of."

"Had a fun day at Sundown Cave, did you?" Sapphire asked, then puffed out her chest. "My team is Bronze rank now too."

Lune's scarlet eyes gleamed with interest. "Really now? That's quite fast. Good work."

She watched him cautiously, uncertain as to whether it was really a compliment or whether he was mocking her for being in a team with Singe; Lune's gaze was calm as he looked back at her, giving nothing away.

"Are you going to Sundown Cave tomorrow, then?" he asked. "Do you know where it is?"

"No," she admitted grudgingly. "I'm sure Singe does, though."

"Oh, I wouldn't be so sure. There's no real reason for most Pokémon to go there," he said. "I should show you the way, at least. Otherwise I'll feel guilty." He gave her a small smile, and her scales tingled once again.

Luminita shot Lune a glare, but did not disagree; she pushed Luster roughly with her paw. "Catch up with us, if you've got the time," she growled over her shoulder; Lune gave her a small nod, and the three of them headed down the slope.

"What's her problem?" Sapphire asked, watching the Luxio head towards town; Lune shrugged.

"I haven't the foggiest idea," he said quietly, before flicking his tail to her. "We should hurry, or we'll miss the sunset. It's not called Sundown Cave for nothing, you know."

Sapphire's eyes narrowed. "Why should I care?"

Lune laughed quietly. "Prickly, aren't you? I'd have thought that you would be more friendly, since my team bailed you out."

She ground her teeth together, but she couldn't dispute that they would have been in serious trouble, if it hadn't been for Lune's help. "Whatever. It's not going to happen again."

Lune laughed again. "Sure, whatever you say. Come on, then." He turned, pushing his way through the brush with practiced ease; she felt clumsy by comparison, floundering through the foliage behind him.

There was a small, well-beaten path that Lune eventually led them to; the going was easier then, although she was tingling all over from itchy thorns. She scratched at her scales, glancing down as her hand found the scar left by the Pidgeotto; she frowned down at it. It was an ugly thing; not a battle scar, as Singe had from their first battle; hers was different.

_They're different because we didn't know what we were getting into that first time…but the second time, I just plain screwed up, _she thought angrily. _So Singe gets a nice memory of the first boss he ever defeated, and I get to remember the first time I failed. Peachy._

"Close your eyes," Lune said over his shoulder. She peered at him suspiciously.

"Why? Let me guess, Luminita is doubling back to attack me while I'm standing blindly like an idiot?"

He laughed in his characteristic low chuckle. "No, Sapphire. If we had wanted to hurt you, we would have told Sugar that we didn't have any Reviver Seeds, and that would have been that. Just trust me."

She folded her arms over her chest. "Ask Singe about my trust issues."

Lune shrugged. "Okay. Whatever you want."

Sapphire's eyes widened as Lune gave off a pulse of dark energy; she could see if shifting through the air, but there was no time for her to run or swat it away. Everything suddenly went dark; her eyes were open, but she could see nothing. It was blacker than the darkest night. She flailed wildly, Scratching blindly in front of her.

"Sapphire, settle down," Lune said softly; he was behind her, and she turned, only to feel his paw poking her. She stumbled, catching herself from falling with one hand. He nudged her again, and she stumbled through the brush; there was no more vegetation in front of her, only fallen leaves and grass.

The darkness suddenly lifted from her vision, and she gaped at the sight before her; Sundown Cave rose in front of her, carved from a gray wall of stone; the sun had set at an exact angle, casting its rays into the mouth of the cave. Within the cave sparkled crystals, dozens of them, scattering shattered light and miniature rainbows over the walls of the cave and surrounding grass.

"There, now, isn't that nice? You didn't have to be difficult about it," Lune said beside her. "Again, trust is—"

He broke off as she turned, Scratching him down the length of his muzzle; the force of the blow sent him tumbling to the ground. She glared down at him.

"Don't you _ever_ do that to me again, understand?" she snarled. Lune stared up at her with surprise, before touching his muzzle gingerly, and scrutinizing the blood that came away on his paw.

"Trust issues indeed," he said slowly, sitting up; she tensed, gathering the energy for a Water Gun; she knew he was probably too strong for her to win this battle, but she didn't care. Her eyes narrowed as she waited for his next move, but he simply blinked at her for a moment and touched his bloody muzzle again, before his gaze flicked to the cave. "Don't you think it's pretty?"

Almost against her own will, she glanced towards the glittering crystals. "Yeah. Maybe. It's…yeah."

She stared back at Lune, wondering what he was doing; he sat down, then licked his paw and brushed it over his muzzle, cleaning his ebony fur. "You can sit beside me, I won't Bite you," he said with a small smile.

"Yeah, like I'm falling for that. You just blinded me!"

"I asked you to close your eyes, and you wouldn't. I didn't expect for you to be so…panicky."

Sapphire shivered at the thought of the darkness; it had reminded her too closely of that first darkness, when her memories had been slipping away and she had awoken to find herself in a world that she didn't understand.

_One that I still don't quite get…there's always new stuff that Singe is showing me, and things like this…I still don't fit in at all, _she thought grimly. "You aren't going to hit me back?"

"What? No. It's ungentlemanly for a male to strike a female, especially when her violence was…somewhat warranted." One of his ears twitched. "Now, are you going to sit with me and enjoy the view, or are you going to scurry back to your little hut?"

She grinded her teeth together, thinking, before finally scowling and plopping herself down beside him, careful not to sit on her tail. "Just because my feet hurt from all this walking," she warned him, bending down to touch them. Lune chuckled at her, but she ignored him, keeping her eyes on the crystals.

"I'm guessing that's how the cave got its name?" she asked after a brief lull.

"Of course. There's not much else remarkable about it…but my, does it sparkle. I'm sure you and Singe will enjoy exploring it thoroughly tomorrow, although you'll probably have a better time than he will. You're lucky to have a Fire type on your side, he can help light your passage. Your badge will help too, but it can only give off so much light…." He trailed off.

They sat together for a long time, as the sun slowly sank towards the horizon. Only when the sun disappeared completely did the crystals stop glittering, and it was then that Sapphire rose to her feet, brushing herself clean of dust and grass. Lune yawned, rising to his paws as well.

"My teammates will be missing me, I expect," he said. "It was nice, spending time with you…aside from, well…." He trailed off, and she could tell he was resisting touching his muzzle again.

She stared him down, unapologetic. "Yeah. Thanks for showing me the way, I guess."

He gave her a courteous nod, before turning and disappearing into the forest; Sapphire started to follow, then hesitated, glancing back towards the crystals. She waited a second, then closed her eyes, and smiled. Behind the darkness of her eyelids, rainbows danced and shimmered.

. . .

She yawned, stretching slightly as she waddled over the bridge towards her little hut. She paused a moment in the doorway, looking up at it, glancing at the peeling paint, broken windows, and yawning door.

_I wonder if we get any perks at Bronze rank…like a new team base, _she thought. _This one is a pile of junk. If we could get some help from the town, maybe we could spiff it up…although, I wonder where our new team-mates are supposed to go? At Bronze rank, we can recruit some now…I suppose they're have to find somewhere to stay. Which reminds me…where does Singe live, anyway, if it's not with his mother?_

She ran a claw over the splintering wood absentmindedly. _Maybe I'll ask him tomorrow…about getting a new base, too, since I don't really know how that works around here…._

She yawned again, fangs flashing in the darkness; the first stars had appeared by now, as well as the sliver of moon, and for a moment she smiled up at the sky.

_I think…I think I used to like the stars. That's about all I can remember from that vision…memory…thingy that I had when I nearly fainted. But…do I still like them? How much of that was the old me? I guess it's that old debate, nature versus nurture…but I bet those old professors never took the nature of Pokémon into account. _She rubbed her forehead; just wonder about how much becoming a Totodile had changed her gave her a headache.

_We'll probably be doing a ton of missions tomorrow…at the very least we'll thoroughly explore Sundown Cave, which I guess means another battle with a boss…might as well get some rest. I don't want a repeat of my last match against a boss._

She stretched, pulling her arms upwards over her head as she waddles towards her bed. She sat down gingerly, wincing at the rough scrap of the material against her scales; it was odd that thorns didn't bother her, but an itchy mattress did.

She laid her head down on the pillow, then blinked as she heard a quiet crinkle. Frowning, she turned and rolled over onto her stomach, pulling up the pillow. Her eyes widened as she saw a crisp piece of paper lying on the mattress.

_I have something for you. Something that you will need for your journey. It might not be what you expect, but I assure you that you will need it._

_It waits for you at the top of Sundown Cave._

**AN: Ship-teasing shenanigans. I love them.**


	14. Chapter 12: Two Princes

**AN: SkylarxSapphire? That did not even cross my mind, but if you consider it then there was a **_**lot **_**of ship-teasing last chapter, which is fine with me because I think it's fun. ^^**

**Anonymous, care to make a guess as to which Legendary it is, since you sound like you have an idea? I love hearing theories. :D**

**Ravenshade, I love your paring names. MarcusxSapphire strikes me as a lil odd (since he's quite a bit older than her), but the name is cute. Also, NapoleonxNapoleon is completely canon. Emperorshipping FTW.**

**Justme, the chapters are indeed all named after songs (although not for the songs themselves, just the titles, because the songs themselves don't really fit at all xD). I'll admit the latest was a bit of a cop-out, because the letter wasn't really a postcard, but I love that song, soooo. xD**

**As for Marcus being 'fruity,' as Justme put it…well. He's prolly a little fruitier than most, that's true. :p**

**C **_**h a p t e r **_**12**

"Morning, Sapphire!" Singe chirped as she crossed the bridge, yawning and stretching. She gave him a sleepy nod; it had taken her quite awhile to fall asleep the night before; she had been thinking about the mysterious note, wondering who could have left it.

Singe was grinning. "I can't wait to explore Sundown Cave with you! I've been looking forward to it all morning. Are you hungry?"

Sapphire shook her head. "No. I'm fine."

Singe blinked at her. "You sound a little distracted…is everything okay?"

Sapphire held out the paper; he read it quickly, then frowned. "Was this in your house?"

She nodded, and Singe looked nervous. "Do you have any idea who sent it? Or when they might have done it? It wasn't while you were asleep or anything, was it?" He glanced towards the house. "If you don't feel safe, I could sleep over…."

She rolled her eyes. "That's hardly necessary. Someone just left me a note, is all…I don't think it was a prank. I mean, who would attempt it? And why would they tell us it's at the cave? We're already going there anyway, so there's no real point to it. There must actually be something up there for us…."

"Well…it sounds like someone that knows you're one of the Transformed…but I guess that could be anyone in Dewdum, or even beyond; I'm sure word has spread by now…I guess we'll just have to see what it is. Maybe that'll give us a clue. I mean, if it's just an Apple or something…." Singe shrugged. "Either way, I guess we should head into town and see what missions we can find."

She nodded, and the two of them started down the path towards town; Singe chattered on about this and that, but she wasn't really listening.

_What if this item is really important? _She wondered. _I mean…something that would really help me with my journey, whatever that means, would be really hard to find. I'm not sure if Dewdum really has that sort of outreach…and if they did, why give me a mysterious note or whatever? Why not just tell me, or give it to me face-to-face?_

She scowled. _Just what I need. More puzzles._

. . .

Team Darkspark was looking at the mission as Sapphire and Singe approached; Sapphire could tell that Singe didn't want to talk to them, but she also knew that he was feeling a bit more generous towards them since they had helped the two of them out before.

"Why hello there," Lune said with a smile as the two of them approached. Luminita glanced at them, her eyes narrowing as she saw Sapphire, letting out a quiet growl; Luster ignored them entirely, glancing over the missions.

"Good morning," Singe said, but his voice was slightly tight.

"Looking for your first Sundown Cave mission, are you?" Lune asked; he looked to Sapphire, and her face heated after remembering their experience the afternoon before.

"Yes," she said, her voice somewhat clipped.

Lune flicked his tail towards the board. "There's an easy mission here that you could start out with; you only need to go to the third floor."

"Thanks, but we're trying to go all the way," Singe said. "We want to see the whole place, just so we know more about it…do you have any tips for the boss?"

Lune glanced at Sapphire, and smiled. "I think you'll do just fine."

Sapphire flushed again, but she growled, "Yeah, that's really helpful."

"So, where are you two going today?" Singe asked.

"None of your business," Luminita spat, but Lune gave her a warning look.

"We've got a special mission today," he said. "We were just checking for some more cool missions to take up the rest of our day, but nothing seems too interesting."

"The rewards are all for chumps," Luster declared, finally looking away from the message board; Sapphire blinked with surprise as she realized his eyes were too different colors; she hadn't had time to really look at him before, especially since he seemed to fade into the background compared to mysterious Lune and fiery Luminita, but now she could see that one of his eyes gleamed gold, the other bright green.

"What's your special mission?" Singe asked, curious despite his misgivings about the team. Lune only laughed quietly.

"You'll see when we come back," he replied.

"Hello!" A loud voice from behind made Sapphire jump. She turned, eyes narrowing as she recognized Sugar the Skitty and Spice the Growlithe.

"What are you guys doing here?" Singe asked; he was smiling, but Sapphire knew he wasn't exactly to see Spice after the trouble she had gotten them into last time.

Sugar beamed at them. "I told you, we are making a rescue team too!" she purred. "We named it Team Sparkle, after Team Darkspark! They really inspired us…plus we have to pay them back for their help! We are going into Sunlit Meadow for the first time as a team today!"

Sapphire winced; just as before, Sugar's energetic speech and loud exclamations were giving her a headache, just as they had before.

Spice looked at Team Savage stonily. "This time, I'll fight the boss myself," she growled. Sapphire felt a prickle of irritation run over her scales at the Growlithe's arrogance.

"Good luck with that," she snapped back. Lune glanced between Sapphire and Spice, clearly sensing the tension between them.

"Well, we should be off," he said crisply, "our client will be arriving soon. Good day to you Sapphire, Singe. Good luck on your expedition." He gave them both a polite nod, before leading his team-mates away.

Sugar and Spice bounced immediately towards the message board; Singe and Sapphire peered over them, looking at the green missions this time; green missions were D-rank, the rank that they were aspiring to as a Bronze team.

"Here's the one Lune mentioned…a stranded Zubat," Singe said, plucking one paper from the board. "Let's see…two more missions on our way, one to deliver a Cheri berry, one to rescue a Rattata…okay, these all seem pretty straightforward. The only thing that bothers me is that the Rattata's mission in on the seventh floor; that's bigger than Sunlit Meadow, so we might need some more food…we'll have to see Libby, I guess." He touched his chin thoughtfully. "I'm not sure how long this dungeon really is…I don't want to run into the boss without expecting him, y'know?"

Sapphire nodded. "I'm sure someone around here knows. Isn't Magnus supposed to know everything?"

Singe laughed quietly. "Yeah, that's true. We can try to ask him about it after we talk to Libby." He pulled the other two missions from the board. "Well, we'd better get started then, huh?"

. . .

Libby was lounging on her shop counter when they approached, lying on her back and letting out a low purr as Luke massaged her stomach; she blinked one eye lazily at the two of them as they stopped in front of her.

"Little busy right now, guys," she meowed, then arched her back with pleasure as Luke touched her stomach. "Oh, _yes. _Right there, Luke, right there."

Singe glanced at Luke, obviously wondering if they were interrupting anything, but Luke smiled and gave them a small nod. "What are you two up to today?"

"We're going to explore Sundown Cave today," Singe said with a grin. "Pretty excited about that, but it sounds like it might be longer than we were expecting. If you're not too busy, Libby, could you fetch us some Apples…?"

Libby closed her eyes again. "Darling, as much as I adore you, I am just a little…oooh." She let out another purr of pleasure. "A little busy. Come back real soon. Luke's helping me with my job stress, and he is doing an _amazing _job. I almost want to pay him."

Luke chuckled. "So long as you're happy and not biting my ear off anymore about that new storage facility moving in, that's enough for me."

Libby let out a quiet growl. "Don't even _remind _me about that, darling. Why do you think I'm so stressed in the first place, huh? I just know that Lizzy character is going to come in here and try to hustle away my business. Well, I am not going to stand for it!" Luke winced as Libby accidentally unsheathed her sharp claws, pricking his arm. She meowed an apology, before glancing back at Sapphire and Singe.

"Singe, darling, you won't abandon me to that mongrel, will you?" she asked with a pout. Singe smiled.

"Of course not, and I don't think anyone else will, either," he said quickly. "You've been here as long as I can remember. Dewdum wouldn't be Dewdum without you."

Libby's face brightened, pleased by the ego-stroking, and she quickly waved a white paw at the two of them. "We'll be finished soon. Find something to do until then."

"Might as well talk to Magnus and see what he knows, so we can be more prepared," Sapphire said. "As much as he creeps me out, I'm sure he'll be at least somewhat helpful."

Singe nodded. "Good idea, since we've got some extra time now. We should hurry, though, I really want to have time to go through the whole dungeon."

. . .

They neared Magnus's shop, and Sapphire felt the same scale-tingling humming emitting from the shop as she had before; she shivered, rubbing her hands over her arms in an attempt to get the prickling to stop. It didn't quite work, but the sensation diminished as they drew nearer.

Sapphire blinked, puzzled as they drew nearer; something about the shop felt different. It took her a moment to realize that the usually-plain shop had new decorations; pink ribbons hung in the windows, and the shelf had been repainted a brighter white. The smell of new paint was quite strong.

Singe blinked. "Magnus says not to touch the counter, it's still wet," he said. She glanced at him, frowning, and he gave her a shrug. "Just because you won't let Magnus communicate with you mentally doesn't mean I won't let him do it with me."

"I just don't trust him," she grumbled. "A Pokemon with that much power should be watched."

"Your caution is wise, although unneeded," Magnus's deep voice came from back in the shop; he soon floated into view, his hands rested serenely on his knees. "What can I do for you, Sapphire?"

"I'm sure you've already been poking around my brain to find out," she snapped, only to yelp as Singe pinched her.

"Be nice," he warned under his breath, before giving Magnus a smile. "We were just wondering what you could tell us about Sundown Cave, if you aren't too busy."

"I'm never too busy to help young explorers," Magnus said, and Sapphire thought he smiled; it was hard to tell underneath his creepy mustache. "Sundown Cave is a rather straightforward dungeon, as dungeons go. The caverns are all rather large, you'll find, although they do not hold many items, because plant life cannot grow. There are ten floors, all shrouded in complete—" Magnus kept talking, but Sapphire had lost interest; Singe was probably taking notes in his geeky way, and thus he could fill her in later; she was much too distracted to pay attention to Magnus's dry voice. Her mind wandered back to the mysterious note once more, and she was seized with anticipation; she wanted to claim the item at the top of Sundown Cave immediately. Hopefully it would bring her closer to identifying the note-leaver.

Her eyes drifted again to the ribbons, and she frowned. They seemed very un-Magnus-like, and for a moment she wondered if Miss Liss had moved in with him. Still, the pink seemed oddly familiar….

She blinked as she heard a boisterous laugh echoing from the back of the shop; Singe stiffened, and she knew that he recognized it as soon as she did.

"Hello, Singe and Sapphire!" Marcus the Machamp said, entering their view; he seemed to fill up the entire space with his four massive arms; the lower two were clutching very large crates.

"Hey, Marcus! Good to see you again." Singe grinned. "What are you doing here?"

Marcus laughed again. "Well, you guys told me to go and find Magnus, and I was thinking that the name sounded very familiar! So I found him, and what do you know? It's him, my brother!"

Sapphire blinked, glancing between the two Pokemon; Magnus and Marcus could not possibly look more different from one another, Magnus with his quiet reserve, and Magnus with his bright pink girdle and loud voice.

"Half brothers, actually," Magnus said softly. Marcus nodded.

"We share a father," he explained. "Magnus is quite a bit older than me, and got all of his brains from his mother. I'm afraid all I managed to inherit was my father's brawn. We've never actually met in the flesh, can you believe that? Of course, I've heard all about my brother's exploits, and when you mentioned his name I was quite exciting…." Marcus gave his brother an admiring look, looking like the typical worshipful younger brother. Magnus's mustache twitched.

"Marcus is staying with me, until he can get a shop of his own," the Alakazam said. "I've convinced him to stay in Dewdum."

"The Ladies both like the climate, and we've got plenty to catch up on," Marcus grinned, giving his brother a playful shove with one of his robotic hands.

_Serves you right, Magnus, having to share a room with a cyborg. I wonder, do they share bunk beds? _Sapphire pondered, then squinted suspiciously at Magnus, thinking that he had an amused twinkle in his eyes. _Is he reading my thoughts again?_

"Hang on, your brother's exploits?" she asked, blinking as his words registered. "What sorts of exploits?"

Marcus looked surprised. "Didn't you know?"

Singe looked equally puzzled. "What are you talking about? Magnus has been here as long as I can remember."

Marcus gave his brother an astonished look. "You haven't told them?"

Magnus gave a tiny shake of his head, and almost looked embarrassed, but Marcus looked gleeful that he was able to speak of his brother's fame.

"Magnus here was once a great explorer!" he exclaimed, clapping his brother on the back once more. "He was a real contender, yessir! He was Platinum Rank, and very close to becoming Diamond Rank, if I remember correctly!"

Singe's eyes widened. "There have only been a handful of teams in the entire _history _of teams to get Diamond Rank!" he exclaimed. "Two of them were the Transformed teams, by the way. But no pressure, or anything." He gave Sapphire a cheeky smile.

Marcus clapped his robotic hands together. "Ah, yes! Magnus told me about you once being a human, Sapphire! That is when I knew that I had to make Accessories for the both of you! So, what do you two want? I will not take no for an answer." He beamed at them, but Sapphire was less interested in his Accessories than she was Magnus's legacy.

"So, why are you here in this backwater town, if you were a bigshot?" she demanded. Magnus chuckled quietly.

"It's simple, my dear. I grew tired of the adventurous life, and I decided to simply settle down, somewhere where few would hear of my legacy. Dewdum is a 'backwater town,' as you so eloquently put it; very few Pokemon know of my past, and I've asked them to kindly not repeat it. My days of being a famous explorer are over, and I'm content to help the next generation."

"Well, you've definitely been very helpful," Singe said. "I think we've learned enough, and Libby and Luke are probably finished now. We should be going."

"Wait, wait," Marcus said quickly. "I still need to know what Accessories you want me to make!"

Singe and Sapphire exchanged glances; Singe had an amused glimmer in his eye, and she wrinkled her nose as she realized he was probably still thinking of her crown comment. Then, he frowned.

"I'm not really sure, to be honest, Marcus," he said. "There are an awful lot of things to choose from…."

"How about a bandana for you, Singe?" the Machamp asked. "Yes, a red one would go very well with your scales…you could wear it around your neck, around your head….Perhaps with an insignia, hmm…."

"That sounds good," Singe said, but Marcus was clearly already deep in thought, pondering his new designs.

"Well, I—" Sapphire said, only to stop as Marcus held up one of his gleaming hands.

"No no, Sapphire, I've just thought of the perfect Accessory for you! I'll have the Ladies begin making silk immediately. Stop by later, you two, maybe tomorrow, and I'll have them ready. Oh, I need to go draw the designs out…." With that, Marcus left the room, muttering to himself and drawing designs in the air with his gleaming hands as he did so; he had apparently forgotten about the two massive crates his other two hands were carrying. They looked as though they weighed no more than a feather to him.

"Well…okay, then," Singe said, a little uncertainly. "I guess we'll stop back later. See you, Magnus! Thank you for your help!"

"Any time, Singe," Magnus replied, giving them both a little nod, before floating into the back of the shop after his brother.

"Okay," Singe said with a little chuckle, turning back to Sapphire. "That took a little longer than I thought it would…but I think we just need to pop on over to Libby's, and we'll be on our way to Sundown Cave!"

"About time," she grumbled. "Talking to Magnus always gives me a headache."

To her surprise, Singe laughed. "Me too. His Psychic energy is really powerful, and that hum…it kinda messes with your head after a bit, I guess. But he's a good guy, if a little odd sometimes."

"Right," she growled. "You just wait. Someday he's going to start controlling everyone with his crazy powers. We'll all be his crazy brain puppets."

"Right, better break out the tinfoil hats," Singe joked, giving her a playful nudge. Sapphire nudged him back, not nearly as hard as she could have, and he grinned at her, his white teeth gleaming against his orange skin.

"Come on," he said, still grinning, and broke into an eager trot, heading for Libby's shop once more.

**AN: I'm still working on this fic, I swear. D:**


	15. Chapter 13: Never Alone

**AN: Thozies, I'm glad you like it so far! I know the story's littered with errors, sigh. I might go through and try to fix them some time, but I'm afraid I don't have the time at the moment. :(**

** Ravenshade: By the time the story's over, Emporershipping might be the only canon one of the bunch. :p**

** Cenobia: Thanks! Sorry for the wait.**

** Silver: Can't give any hints, sorry! All the Legendary are weird types, so that would give it away. Glad you like it, and I apologize for the wait.**

** Anon: Jirachi is a good guess! S/he is one of my favorite Legendaries. :)**

** Sapphire Flare: I never really like the A in ACT either. Charizard was always cool, though. I know, right? Sapphire deserves a crown once this is all over! Glad you like it. I'm not fond of Palkia, but he can be a pretty cool dude. :p**

** Oscuro Dream: Thanks!**

** WillowBurn: Thank you, glad you like it.**

** MewKyuun: Thank you, I'm glad you like it! Sorry it took so llong, my other projects are always sucking up my time, sigh. I can try to be faster, but no promises. D:**

** Hermytail: Aww, thank you. :)**

** Krourou: That sucks about your game! RRT is probably one of my favorite Pokemon games. Bubbles and Buttercup actually fit Team Sparkle rather well, haha, I like that. Hmm, maybe Magnus is actually an alien? Who knows. Skyler/Sapphire kinda freaks me out, because it's one of the few pairings I didn't think of, but everyone else keeps mentioning it, ha. Thanks. :D**

C **13**

She craned her neck back to look up at the craggy gray stone. She could barely see the top of Sundown Cave, stabbing into the sky like a jagged tooth.

_Something is waiting up there for me, _she thought, _something that will help us on our journey. Perhaps we're finally going to do more than just wander around helping stupid Pokemon with their ridiculous problems._

"Ready?" Singe asked, glancing at her. She smirked.

"Of course," she replied. "Let's get in, beat the boss, retrieve the item, and go!"

"Don't forget saving a Zubat, delivering a Cheri berry, and help a Rattata get home," he reminded her. She rolled her eyes and waved him away with one hand.

"Details, details," she said, but smiled despite herself; she was rather excited about the prospect of a hidden gift. She had tried earlier to think of what it might be, but aside from a valuable item, like a Nugget, she had come up dry.

"Alrighty then, let's not waste any more time!" Singe chirped, striding towards the dark maw of the cave. He reached out with his right hand to touch the cave wall. "My mother taught me this really neat trick where—"

Singe's voice cut off abruptly as the mystery dungeon swallowed him up. Without hesitation, Sapphire followed him.

Sundown Cave opened up before her eyes; she found herself gazing down a long tunnel that was only dimly lit from behind with the sunlight pouring in from the dungeon's entrance. Singe was nowhere to be seen.

_Hurried off without me, _she thought, feeling only slightly irritated. _Guess he's more excited than I thought. Makes sense, I suppose…this is a dungeon only for Bronze ranks, and I know how much that means to him._

She took a step forward, pressing her hand against the right cave wall just as Singe had done. She wasn't sure what it was for, but it had apparently seemed like a good idea to him.

As she stepped into the cave, there was a sudden loud rumbling sound behind her. Sapphire's eyes widened as she heard the sound of stone against stone. She turned around, but it was too late; the sides of the tunnel's opening suddenly slammed together, blocking out any trace of light. She was plunged into darkness.

Immediately, her breathing stopped. Terror rose up into her throat, choking her. She stumbled backwards, hitting her back against the side of the cave. The darkness was all around her, pushing against her, pinning her to the wall. The cave was completely black; there wasn't the slightest trace of light no matter how franticly she looked around the tunnel.

The darkness was just like what she had felt before, that very first darkness that had threatened to consume her when she woke up in her new body for the first time. It was the darkness that had taken her memories away, the darkness that had consumed her human half, the darkness that had trapped her in this alien body.

_No, _she thought. _No, no no!_

It wasn't until the ragged sounds tore out of her throat that she realized she was shouting aloud. "Singe! Singe!" she screamed, and then turned towards where the entrance to the dungeon had been. She moved too quickly and smashed her nose into the stone. She let out a yelp of pain, but didn't pull back. She scrabbled against the stone, Scratching it, trying to somehow dig herself out. In desperation, she launched a Water Gun at the wall, but to no avail.

"Sapphire? Sapphire, what's going on?"

She didn't answer him, instead shouting something incoherent and shooting another spout of water at the unresponsive rock.

"Sapphire!" Singe's hand grabbed her shoulder and spun her around. She stared into his wide green eyes, her sides heaving, barely noticing the flickering flame on the end of his tail.

"Sapphire, calm down," Singe said. "Just breath, please, just relax. We're perfectly fine, nothing's going to happen to you. What's got you so upset?"

She stared at his tail, the light finally beginning to register, and felt her breathing ease. Singe seemed to take note of it, and his eyes gentled.

"Are you afraid of the dark?"

"I'm not afraid!" she spat, but the terror in her eyes was plain to the Charmander. He grabbed his tail with one hand, shoving it towards her. The fire blazed up, almost too brightly for her to look at, casting twisting shadows on the cave's dark walls.

"Just relax," he said, his voice calm and soothing. "Close your eyes."

"No!"

"Sapphire. Please, just trust me." His green eyes blinked at her, radiating calm honesty. He held her hand with one of his own; the other was still clutching his tail so that it burned between them like a blazing torch. "Close your eyes."

She hesitated, then did as he instructed. Singe's tail's light flickered through her eyelids, and she found herself relaxing slightly with the realization that his tail was able to keep the darkness at bay.

The light dimmed, and her hold on Singe's hand tightened, but he didn't pull away. He gave her hand a gentle squeeze, and the light dimmed down even further.

"Open your eyes."

Her ruby eyes fluttered open to find that his hand was now positioned over the flame, muffling it. It still managed to lick through his fingers, giving off a gentle glow.

"See? So long as I'm here, you won't be in the darkness," Singe said. "I shouldn't have left you, I know, but I thought you were right behind me and I didn't realize you'd be so afraid…I promise it won't happen again. I'll stick right here by your side, Sapphire. You have my word on that."

She stared at his tail as he released it from his grip, watching the flame spring back up, crackling brightly. Sapphire forced herself to take in a deep breath, exhaling with a gusty sigh.

"Better?" Singe asked.

"Much. Thanks." Sapphire drew away, her face burning with shame. Her nose was throbbing, and she realized that it was bleeding. She touched it gingerly, then winced; Singe winced with her, his emerald eyes wide and sympathetic.

"I can get an Oran berry for that," he offered. "Looks like you hurt your fingers too, trying to Scratch the wall. You tore a claw."

"It'll grow back," she said, looking away from him, unable to bear his pity. "I'm not a child."

"I never said you were."

"No, but you're looking at me like I'm a delicate piece of china or something!" she shouted. Her voice bounced off of the tunnel walls, echoing harshly in her ears.

"I'm just worried for you, that's all. You looked kind of crazy there, and you tore yourself up without even noticing…it was scary for me, too." Singe cocked his head to one side. "How long have you been afraid like this? Were you afraid as a human, too?"

"I wasn't afraid," she said again, her face burning. "I just…panicked. It was just so dark…I couldn't see anything, and you weren't there, and it was just like when I woke up back at the lake, in a strange place without any memory of who I used to be or how I got there…."

Singe's eyes widened in understanding. "Sapphire, I had no idea—"

"Can we just go?" Her words came out sharper than she had intended, and Singe flinched.

"Of course. I just want you to know that I'm here for you, if you need anything," he said. "I won't leave your side again. That was my mistake. You've nothing to be ashamed of."

"I know," she growled, feeling her temper flare, before she forced herself to take another deep breath. Whether she wanted to admit it or not, she had been gripped by fear, terror like nothing she had ever felt before. If it wasn't for Singe calming her down, there was no telling what she would have done trying to escape the dungeon.

Singe turned away, but she touched his shoulder, and he glanced back at her.

"Thank you," she mumbled, staring down at her feet. She couldn't see his face, but she knew he was smiling like he always seemed to be.

"You'd do the same for me, if your tail was on fire," he said, with his customary chuckle.

Singe began walking down the tunnel, pausing at the end to glance back at her. She followed him closely, resisting the urge to reach out and grab his tail, to somehow anchor herself to the light. It was childish, but that didn't make her want to do so any less.

"So, what sort of Pokemon are out here?" she asked, trying to distract herself from the flickering shadows and waiting darkness.

"Weren't you listening when Magnus was briefing us?" he asked. Singe's question was met with silence, and he sighed. "Of course not, I'm sure you had more important things to think about.

"Most of the Pokemon here have weaknesses to you, I think he said. There are a lot of Aron and Geodudes lurking around; they're the ones that made these tunnels."

"I thought the tunnels happened by themselves, as part of the whole mystery dungeon package?"

"In fields and forests, yes, but it's different in caves. All of the tunnels here were originally carved by Pokemon. What the mystery dungeon does is close some of them off so we can't enter them, and widen the areas to create rooms. Most of the rooms stem from dens created by ferals to store food and stuff like that."

"And instead of Flagstones, there are Stairs?"

He nodded. "We move up and down in caves, instead of to the side, so we use Stairs."

"What other ferals are skulking around here?" She shuddered at the thought of wild Pokemon staring at them from the darkness, cloaked in shadows.

"Zubats, I think…maybe even the occasional Onix, but they're pretty rare. Onix dig really fast, so they usually don't cross the paths of explorers. They keep their distance. As ferals go, they're pretty peaceful."

_Alright, _she thought, _I can handle all that. Everything that we see will be weak to me, except Zubats, and they really hate light. Singe should be able to scare them off with an Ember, if his tail isn't off-putting enough._

They continued in silence; Sapphire noted that Singe was resting his right hand against the tunnel wall again.

"What are you doing that for?"

"Oh, it's a trick that my mom taught me, to get around mazes and dungeons. See, if you're always following the right then you eventually work your way around the whole dungeon, so you'll find the stairs. It makes it so you can't get lost if you don't have your map with you for some reason. You can always keep track of where you've been."

Sapphire nodded; it made sense. Then, she blinked. "Your mother's an explorer?"

"She used to be," he answered, pausing as the tunnel forked, before heading to the right. "Back in the day when she was a Charmander, she wanted to create a Legend team too. The only problem was that there were no new Legendary, so there was never the need for a new team. She trained until she was a Charmeleon so that she'd be ready, but the call never went out.

"Still, she liked helping others, and she kept it up until she finally became a Charizard."

"Why'd she stop, if she liked it? It seems like a Flying Pokemon would have an advantage in fields and forests. She'd be able to find the Flagstone and quarries pretty easily, while avoiding all the trouble."

"Yup. But after that, it wasn't really a challenge. She wanted to help other Pokemon, but the jobs were too easy, and there were younger teams that needed the experience more than she did. So she tried to be more daring, only entering places where her flying abilities were a hindrance rather than helpful…and she ended up in a really tight spot."

"What happened? Was she hurt?"

Singe took a long time to answer, which only made Sapphire more curious. Finally, he sighed. "I'd rather not talk about that."

Sapphire was wondering where exactly Singe came into all of this – surely his mother wasn't embarking on dangerous missions while she had him to take care of, but if so, where had he come from? – but she didn't want to pry more than she already had, especially considering how much he had already helped her.

"Ssh," Singe warned as the tunnel opened up before them into a large room. "Might be ferals in here."

"Your tail has already given us away…not that I'm complaining," she added hastily. "The ferals know we're here."

She smiled as she saw a strange gray formation in the center of the room: the Stairs. The great stone slabs rose up into the ceiling, and when she craned her neck back, she could see the dark entrance to the second floor of the cavern.

"There," Singe warned, pointing towards the corner of the room. Sapphire's eyes narrowed as she spied the glint of steel. She took a few steps towards it, and realized that it was a little Aron, curled up into a ball. The creature appeared to be asleep.

She closed her mouth, readying a Water Gun, before feeling Singe tap her shoulder. He held his finger to his lips and shook his head.

"Let it sleep," he mouthed, before pointing back towards the Stairs. Her eyes narrowed, but she nodded, and followed him up the large stone steps, into the blackness.

Two things happened as they reached the second floor. The first was that the stones underneath their feet shifted, closing over the Stairs leading down to the first floor. The second was that something in the darkness let out a wild screech.

Sapphire instinctively ducked and felt a gust of wind as something rushed over her head. Singe was already turning, fire licking his tongue as he spat out an Ember. Sapphire shielded her eyes from the blinding blaze, opening them to see that their assailant, a Zubat, had managed to avoid the flames. The blue bat was disorientated by the light, and Sapphire took the opportunity to blast it with a Water Gun, sending the blue-and-purple Pokemon slamming into the stone.

The Zubat collapsed to the ground in a heap. Sapphire nudged it with her foot to make sure that it wasn't getting up, before looking to Singe to make sure he was alright. To her surprise, he was grinning.

"That got our blood pumping, huh?" he asked. "That noise alerted every Pokemon on this floor that we're here, so we best be on our toes!"

Sapphire found herself smiling back; Singe was right about her blood pumping. Nothing seemed to excite her the way a dungeon did. It was where she belonged, as crazy as that sounded.

Singe strode into the waiting tunnel with a spring in his step, and Sapphire followed with her heart thumping in her chest.

. . .

They passed the second floor relatively easily; the two of them encountered only a few obstacles, and dispatching them was fairly easy. If it was a Zubat, Singe would fire off an Ember to blind it, and allow Sapphire to finish the job; if it was anything else, Singe would duck and clutch his tail while Sapphire blasted it with a Water Gun. Geodudes went down in one shot, but Aron were a little more stubborn.

Privately, Sapphire wondered if Singe was feeling ashamed that she was having to do most of the work, but if he was he didn't show it. She was willing to bet that he wasn't; he wasn't the type to be ashamed of simply being outmatched by his opponents' types.

Sundown Cave's rooms proved to be rather large, making finding the Stairs relatively easy. In no time at all they were on the third floor, where their client was waiting.

"Now, let's be careful," Singe said as they entered the first room of the third floor. "Remember, our client is a—"

"Zubat!" Sapphire warned. It wasn't until she had shot off the Water Gun that she had prepared ahead of time before she realized that Singe hadn't used Ember. The Zubat wasn't blinded, and thus twisted out of the way with ease.

"Hold on!" Singe ordered, and Sapphire stopped long enough to realize that the Zubat was fluttering above their heads, looking panicked.

"Help! Help! Rogue adventurers!" the blue-and-purple bat yelped. "Help! Zubat in danger, here!"

"Calm down, calm down," Singe said, keeping his voice level. He quickly grabbed his tail and muted the flame to avoid freaking the Zubat out even more. "It was just a mistake. We've been fighting feral Zubats all the way up here. I'm sure you've run into plenty too."

Sapphire flushed as she realized her mistake; the bat was not an enemy, but a client. "Sorry," she mumbled. "Jumped the gun a bit."

"Just take me home! The Pokemon here aren't very nice and you aren't much better and I want to go home!" the bat cried.

"Get down here and we will," Sapphire snapped. Singe reached up with his hand, and the Zubat's tail brushed against his fingers. Sapphire heard the badge chirp, and the Zubat disappeared in a beam of light.

Sapphire scratched her chin. "That could have gone better."

"Yeah. Our reward probably won't be all that great, but that's okay. At least we got her out of here. Two more to go, I guess."

"What are the next clients, so I don't accidentally blast them too?"

He chuckled. "We're delivering the berry to another Sentret – they seem to have a hard time finding those, for some reason – and then the other's a Rattata. Try not to fight him."

Sapphire inclined her head. "Got it. Don't blast the furry mammals."

Singe laughed. "That about sums it up."

. . .

They passed the berry on to the Sentret – who was related to Tracey, the Sentret they had delivered a Chesto berry to, by way of an uncle, as it turned out – without trouble, and Sapphire managed to rein in her gut reaction to claw the Rattata. The frequency of their enemies rose the higher in the cave they went, but it was nothing they couldn't handle.

It wasn't until they reached the end of the ninth floor that Sapphire felt the flutter of fear in her stomach. The last time she had faced a boss, she had lost. Badly. That had been a boss that she'd fought before, a boss that she had beaten and had known what to expect with. This new boss could be anything, and it would almost certainly be much stronger than what she had fought before.

The Stairs rose before them, as imposing as the Staircases before it. Sapphire swallowed, and looked to Singe. He smiled at her.

"We could go back now," he said. "We've finished our missions. We don't have to go all the way."

"Duh. I know that," she replied, "but that would be the coward's way."

"You aren't afraid?"

"I…might be. A little." She scuffed her feet against the hard stone floor. "But I'd be furious at myself if we turned back now. You've got enough Oran Berries and the like to last us, I assume?"

"Yeah, I think so," he said, rummaging through their Bag. "It won't be anything we can't handle, of that I'm sure." He blinked at her, then gave her a cocky grin. "We're both a lot tougher than we were a few days ago, you know. We can beat this boss, no problem."

"I know," she said defensively. "I'm not _that _afraid."

"Never said you were," Singe replied. "Although, between you and me, I might be."

She smiled at him, heartened by his honesty. "Don't worry, I'll protect you," she joked, and Singe grinned at her, clapping her on the back.

"A joke, Sapphire? Right before a big battle? Pinch me, I'm dreaming." He looked back up at the Stairs, and took a deep breath. "Well. No reason to put it off."

Singe started up the steps. Sapphire clenched her fists, following him without pause.

Glittering silver and dazzling sunlight met their eyes on the final floor of Sundown Cave.

**AN: I know it's been ages. The sad thing is that this chapter was 80% done months and months ago, but it was on another computer and I never got around to transferring it until today.**


End file.
